BLACK of VELVET its name say all. From north SALENTO: Elegant and Classy pure Negramaro. Hand-numbered bottles only of the best vintages. Twelve months in french oak barrels and six months of aging in bottle.

At the end of september, when the sun lights up the Negramaro rows and their golden leaves, merry groups of men and women harvest only the riper and the richer grape bunches, those which are black like velvet. The best grapes of Negramaro harvested belatedly are left to wither for another thirty days. The production is limited at 10.000 bottles with grapes coming from a vineyard dated 1935.

The complexity of the harvest, the wine-making process and, even, the bottling expresses itself all at once, when the bottle is opened and it seems that the wine longed to come out and to be drunk. An explosion of  intense flavours almost envelop your nose when the cork is removed. Less aged bottles’ strong and bright ruby-red strikes the sight. The ageing gives this wine some orange-coloured highlights, that are typical both the ageing and the grape variety. When aged the bursting vanilla, ripe fruits and dried flowers hints (among them plum preserve, blackberry and violet stand out) change to more spiced hints with some clear impressions of cacao and coffee prevailing on the fruit, and with a slightly bitter liquorice finish.

The undoubted taste balance, where the softness is as smooth as the velvet on skin, slowly gives its place to the grape variety’s strength expressing itself with round and definite tannin. It discloses the not inconsiderable alcoholic content’s strong warmth (14°) implying the fierce heat of the Salentino sun and finally leaves us a long and intense aftertaste reminding all those aromas that our smell had chosen.

FEUDI di GUAGNANO was founded by five young entrepreneurs, who share a simple but ambitious plan: to save Negramaro vineyards abandoned by elderly winemakers, no longer capable of cultivating the vines. Producing wine is, above all and act of love for the territory, SALENTO historically one of the most important regions in Italy for viticulture. The "mission" of the company is held in the name "Feudi di Guagnano". Feudi is the italian plural of the word 'Fief', meaning district, more precisely it refer to the vineyards, many of which are smaller than one hectare.   

Have a look at the following video:

 WINE: 100% Negramaro

ALCOHOL: 14°

PRODUCTION AREA: Guagnano

FARMING SYSTEM: Alberello

YIELD PER HECTARE: 4.000 bottles (3.500 - 4.000 vines per hectare)

HARVEST: Carried out in the middle of October, hand harvest.

AGE OF THE VINES: 1935 vineyard

AGEING POTENTIAL: Fine age-worthy red wine, it is ready after six months of bottle ageing and has a life of not less than ten - fifteen years.