2025 Duca Carlo Guarini Il Duca Pazzo Rosato Negroamaro Salento IGT Puglia 6pk 6x750ml

The Guarini family has been rooted in Salento since 1065, when Ruggero Guarini defended Lecce under Norman rule before departing on the first Crusade. By 1114, the family already owned vineyards in the region. Today, the estate operates from an eighteenth-century palace with a hypogeum cellar carved from stone — originally a sixteenth-century oil mill, later converted to age wine in oak casks.

Il Duca Pazzo Rosato is a Negroamaro in purezza, certified organic and farmed without irrigation across 70 hectares in Salento. Guarini specializes in the region's indigenous varieties — Negroamaro, Primitivo, and Malvasia — and this bottling shows what dry-farmed old vines deliver when the winemaking stays out of the way.

Partially aged in barriques for eight months, the remainder in steel, the wine opens with red fruit and mineral tones, then delivers a palate that's fresh, soft, and fruity with clear tannins and a dusting of coffee-ground bitterness. Light ruby in the glass, with vegetal and balsamic accents threading through berry fruit and vanilla.

Negroamaro is Puglia's workhorse red — thick-skinned, high in extract, built for the southern heat. In the right hands, it delivers the depth and structure Napa Cab drinkers pay double for, with a rusticity that keeps it honest. This is one of those hands. Pull the cork tonight with grilled lamb or a simple stew — it'll be gone before you overthink it.