Leone de Castris

Leone de Castris - 1665

Acquired in 1665 by the Spanish Duke Oronzo Francesco de Castris, the Leone de Castris ancestral family estate is today one of the biggest wine producers of the Puglia region and one of the most renowned in all of Italy since the winery created, in 1943, its legendary Five Roses rosé to supply the Allied forces during WWII under the command of US General Charles Poletti. This delightful wine, with its aromas of lemon and apple, and notes of pear and orange, may be part of history, yet it is still very popular and highly praised to this day – it received a 92 rating from Falstaff in 2020.

Scattered around the town of Salice Salentino on the Salento peninsula (the heel of Italy’s “boot"), the vineyards of Leone de Castris benefit from clay and limestone soils, as well as from the hot southern Italian sun tempered by the constant breezes rising from the Adriatic and Ionic seas. A land so suitable for the cultivation of wine that even the Phoenicians called it Enotria (Land of wine). Leone de Castris produces a wide variety of very good quality wines under the denomination, Salice Salentino DOC, which includes excellent reds, whites, rosés, sweet wines and sparkling wines.

Visit the website of this wine estate in Puglia.