cantele winery

 

Cantele

A stalwart name in Puglia and managed by a young, passionate family team, Cantele is a modern, charismatic estate with a diverse range of the very highest quality.

The Wines

History

The Estate

 

cantele family

History 

The Cantele story begins, not in Puglia in the south of Italy, but in the heads and hearts of a family from northern Italy. Towards the end of the 1950s, Giovanni Battista Cantele and his wife Teresa Manara, had the vision to choose the distant Salento Peninsula as the ideal location for their family project.The story continued with the involvement and focus of their sons Augusto and Domenico within the Salento region itself. This lead them to the rediscovery and re-evaluation of such historic local grape varieties as the red Primitivo and Negroamaro and the white Fiano, as well as successful experimentation with several international varieties – such as Chardonnay – which proved capable of flourishing in this environment.

Their continuing passionate belief in the special qualities of the area led to the planting of over thirty hectares of vineyard, as well as the construction of a state of the art winery complex. This was designed to follow the proportions and aesthetics of a traditional Salento “Masseria”.

The Cantele story comes right up to date today with the first generation of the family to be born in Salento; Gianni, who oversees all the winemaking, Umberto, who is the main ambassador and commercial director, Paolo and Luisa. They are driven by the same love and respect for the land which first “hosted” and finally “adopted” their fathers.

 

cantele vineyard

The Estate

A new winery has been recently built in Guagnano, one of Puglia’s most important wine regions, combining regional architectural traditions with modern technology. The vineyards are located about 100 meters above sea level on limestone, clay and siliceous soil. Classic training system is used in the vineyards, characterised by high density planting. With a total of 20 hectares of vineyards, the Cantele family has great plans for expansion and is already investing in new and exciting plots of land in Salento.

The Puglia area – which is the “heel” of Italy, so to speak – has a perfect blend of warmth and sunshine, combined with cooling sea breezes. This produces grapes which are ripe and full of fruit, but still balanced, making for wines of both power and finesse.

The Salento Peninsula is the southernmost point of Puglia and extends for over one hundred kilometres between the Adriatic and Ionian seas. Above all, this is a soft and gentle land – just like its friendly inhabitants. But it is also a place of contrasts. You see stone everywhere - often tamed by man into an infinite network of the most beautiful “drystone” walls. The same stone also offered the ideal medium for generations of artists to carve out their unlimited Baroque images. Yet, as a fascinating counterpoint, through the action of rain on its way to the sea over countless millennia, this same limestone has created its own fantastic world of spectacular underground caverns, many adapted as cellars to house casks and bottles of maturing wine.

 

cantele salice salentino

The Wines

Situated in the Salento peninsula, which is in the southernmost point of Puglia, one might expect very hot climatic conditions. However, the influence of the sea and the typically cool breezes from the North help to maintain relatively mild temperatures and gentle fluctuations between night and day. This all ensures a fine marriage of rich, ripe fruit and a pleasant freshness in the wines. With a list of accolades and endorsements the length of Italy, the Cantele wines continue to grow from strength to strength and lead the way for all other Puglian producers.

Every harvest is a great one for all wine producers even if some harvest turns into a bad vintage. Everyone that breathes wine for 365 days a year gives 100% of his emotions, efforts and dreams every harvest: no matter of the weather, the rain, the sun… the mother nature does not do the same.

These feelings remind me of my grandfather Giovanni Battista and my Uncle Augusto, they both gave me, Gianni, Paolo and Luisa the pleasure to wait for the harvest and the pleasure to dream about unforgettable vintages.

It’s less than 30 months that we started to cooperate, a really young relationship. The funny and beautiful thing is that I feel at home when I come to visit you! The image I have in my mind is about two old friends sharing their ‘usual’ bottle of wine… Hopes & Dreams: Keep playing in the ‘courtyard’ with Luisa, Paolo and Gianni like we used to do when we were children, like we do now everyday in the winery! This is the atmosphere I want to keep as long as possible.