2024 Li Veli Sybar Rosato Negroamaro Salento 6pk 6x750ml

Li Veli sits halfway between the Adriatic and the Ionian in Salento — the heel of Italy's boot — on land the ancient Messapi called home two thousand years before Christ.

The estate was built by a marquis at the end of the 19th century, then bought and restored in 1999 by the Falvo family, modern Tuscan wine aristocracy who sold Avignonesi and moved south with an ambitious vision. Brothers Edoardo and Alfredo Falvo run it today, joined by their cousin Alessandro in 2018.

Sybar Rosato is a Negroamaro rosé in the classic Apulian tradition — what the locals call a "one night wine" for its short maceration. That brief skin contact gives the wine its exceptional pale salmon color and fresh fruity lift without weight.

Negroamaro is Puglia's workhorse red grape, tannic and dark when vinified traditionally, but when handled this way it becomes something else entirely: mineral, bright, built for warm-weather drinking.

The 2024 is pale and bright, smelling of red rose and raspberry with ripe plum and strawberry on the palate.

The sip is fresh and fragrant, lifted by a pleasant savory streak that keeps it from going soft. Serve it cold — six to eight degrees — with salmon, citrus, anything that wants acidity and a little fruit weight.