Tuesday, Oct 1

Our first dinner in Locorotondo was also our best. Pavì wine restaurant is located just outside of the narrow old town, with a terrace overlooking the landscape. It was chilly though so we chose to sit inside the cozy cave-like dining room. I tried the Locorotondo white (lots of mineral and hay, nice acidity, medium finish), and Leandra had a Negroamaro. For dinner I ordered the trofiette pasta with pumpkin sauce, porcini mushrooms, Capocollo di Martina Franca (bacon) powder, and basil, and it was excellent. Leandra went with the plate they are famous for, “Stinco di maiale al vino rosso,” pork hock cooked in the local Susumaniello red wine. Absolutely falling off the bone with perfectly roasted potatoes. Stuffed, we ended the meal with our first (and only) limoncello of the trip. Service was friendly and overall, one of the best meals on our trip. Well recommended!

Wednesday, Oct 2

This evening we went to a tour and tasting at Trulli il Castagano, who produce about 1000 cases a year. We were supposed to start at 5pm but ended up starting over 20 minutes late. Worse, there were way too many people, probably 50 altogether, which made it difficult to hear in the vineyard. After the quick tour of the white grapes we sat at two long tables set alongside the vines.

We also thought it very strange that for the tasting they had one white, a rose and two reds when they mostly produce white (and we were literally surrounded by white grapes…). Here were our notes:

• 2023 Verdeca (white) – fruit (white peach and melon), mineral. Quite thin on finish, not my favorite of the trip. Served with bread and olive oil.
• Nero di Troia (rose) 2023 – nice color, but tastes stressed. Red fruit – some apple, pomegranate, raspberry. Quite dry. Light med finish. Almost like some oxidation? Or plastic? Served with focaccia.
• Natural Red 2023 – no wood contact, and unfiltered, so a deep purple. Very young. Fruity plum, a little tobacco, herbal. Thinner finish, medium tannin. Served with Italian frittata (made with bread crumbs), which brought out some of the violet and cherry.
• Conventional 2022- filtered, with more time on lees. Nose had herbs, lavender.  More tannin, richer than previous. Served with capicola and salami.

The food portions were meager for the $28 price of this tour, though they were generous with extra pours if people wanted.  Sadly, the wines we tasted were rather thin and unremarkable at best. Overall didn’t love this experience and would recommend avoiding this one altogether.

Afterwards we went to dinner at Ristorante Ai Tre Santi, which had a nice atmosphere. I tried the Ninì Palamà Susumaniello rose (some cotton candy notes, rather odd) while Leandra went for the Salice salentino riserva red (fine).

Here I had the Orecchiette “senatore cappelli” al ragù with bread meatballs. I did quite like the meatballs with bread, but I was surprised at the plainness of the sauce, which made the overall dish fairly boring. Leandra had the foal carpaccio with vinegar and honey, and they vinaigrette seemed to over power the meat. We were mildly disappointed in the food here.

Thursday, Oct 3

We tried a second wine tasting on Thursday night, this time at I Pastini. The group was much smaller, 20 or so people, and the guide was also better. Here we learned that the 300m elevation tends to be cooler and windier, better for preventing problems with fungus in the vineyard, and that they make 100k bottle yr (>8k cases).

Our tasting notes:

• I pastini Brut (sparkling) – lovely fine bubbles, light with floral and mineral (limestone) some apple. Quite pleasant.
• Antico 2023 (white) – Light finish, fades with food. Skip.
• Rampone (white) – minutolo grapes. Lovely, lots of floral like honeysuckle. Med finish. Notes of lime come out with food. Quite interesting.
• Arpago Primitivo 2021 (red) – blackberry, creamy almost Kahlua like. Med long finish, a little bitterness.
• Versud susmaniello (red) – coffee and chocolate, some floral and cherry. Lingering finish, a little heat, not much acidity.

Overall, a well run tasting and better wine than the Trulli il Castagano experience. We left with two bottles, one each of the Rampone and the Susmaniello.

Friday, Oct 4

This was our slower day, so in the afternoon we went to Vinifera Vini & Affini for wine. I tried a Verdeca and negroamaro rose frizzante, while Leandra had a Primitivo and a Susumaniello. We paired those with the trio of chocolates and the “peasant pastry” with quince and nuts (very nice with wine!). And since it was nice we sat on the shared patio area and enjoyed people watching.

For dinner we had reservations at Ristorante Osteria Il Rosone. To start, we ordered a bottle of frizzante rose. Service was strange – it took quite a while to get menus and order the wine, and then they rushed us to put in a food order even though we said we wanted to enjoy the wine for 15 minutes. On top of that, we had to ask for bread that is supposed to come with the cover charge…?  Anyway, I had the orecchiette with ‘chop’ ragu and meatballs, which had a better flavor than Ristorante Ai Tre Santi. But weirdly the pasta came separate from the meat and the chop had toothpicks to hold them together. Leandra’s steak tartare was barely seasoned and came with a pickled salad on the side which she just chopped up and mixed in with the meat to make it more of a dish.

Finally, it was even harder than normal to actually pay when we wanted to leave. Overall, the food was fine, the service was not, and we probably wouldn’t recommend it.