Cantele

The family-run Cantele winery was officially born in 1979 in Guagnano, in the province of Lecce, out of the deep love that Giovanni Battista Cantele and his wife Teresa Manara developed for the city of Lecce. Until that time, Giovanni Battista was dedicated to selling bulk wine in northern Italy, where he lived, wine that he often took right from Puglia. On one of his many trips, in 1950 he was accompanied by his wife, who immediately had a love affair with Salento. Hence the decision to change his life and move to Guagnano with his whole family to devote himself to the wine business. It was Augusto and his brother Domenico who founded the winery in 1979 together with their father Giovanni Battista, and today the estate is run by Gianni, Paolo, Umberto and Luisa Cantele, grandchildren of Giovanni Battista and Teresa. Gianni is involved in the technical-wine aspect while his brother Paolo and cousins Umberto and Luisa are dedicated to the business side. All of this takes place in today's beautiful winery built in 2003, echoing the architectural criteria of typical Apulian masserie farms.

About 50 hectares are planted with vines owned by the Cantele estate, plus another 150 under conduction, all cultivated in accordance with the principles of integrated pest management, a defense method aimed at minimizing the use of phytosanitary treatments through the use of forecasting models. This vineyard area is reserved for the indigenous varieties Primitivo, Negroamaro, Susumaniello, Verdeca and Malvasia Bianca, as well as Chardonnay, vines grown on soils consisting of clayey calcarenites in the typical Mediterranean climate of Salento, characterized by the constant presence of salty breezes from both the Ionian and Adriatic Seas. Steel tanks and barriques are used as wine containers, depending on the wine in question.

The Cantele winery is the creator of an articulated and heterogeneous production that reflects the Apulian oenological tradition but also does not disdain wines with an international style. The 'Teresa Manara' line was born in the 1990s as Augusto Cantele's tribute to his mother and includes one of the greatest Apulian interpretations of Chardonnay: the Chardonnay 'Teresa Manara VT,' which changes its name in each vintage depending on the date of harvest of the grapes, always late.