f a total of about 133,000 hectares of vineyards in Apulia, 37,000 are planted in Negro Amaro. It is not accidental, therefore, that a large quantity of the region's red wines are made from that variety and Lizzano is no exception.Only recently recognized as a DOC wine, Lizzano, which is made in Rosso, Rosato, Negroamaro Rosso and Negroamaro Rosato versions, consists of at least 90-per-cent Negro Amaro grapes. There is a Bianco as well.
Negro Amaro is an ancient variety. And it has dominated the vineyards of the southern part of Apulia since the 6th century BC.
The Negro Amaro is clearly the best variety for the making of the rosé wines of the Salento. Often it is vinified in mixtures with small percentages of Malvasia Nera, which softens the wine's occasionally forthright flavor. The wine obtained from the two varieties features a range of tones between ruby red and garnet and a flavor with an appealingly bitterish vein. There is a Lizzano Malvasia Nera as well.
The principal variety was often described as "niuru maru" in the local dialect because of those constant characteristics of the wine made from it and the black hue of its clusters. The term was eventually transformed into Negro Amaro.
In the Salento of nearly two centuries ago, another variety known as the Negro Dolce, with characteristics exactly the opposite of those of Negro Amaro, was widely cultivated.
