Conti Zecca winery in Puglia, Italy Conti Zecca winery in Puglia, Italy, has a five century history made up of passion, tradition and innovation that have brought it to become one of the most important wine producers of Puglia and Italy. The Neapolitan family moved to Puglia, and more precisaly in the district of Leverano, in the heart of Salento, South Italy, in 1500 and began an intense agricultural activity on his own estates. In the course of the centuries the family concern evolved and in 1935 Count Alcibiade Zecca, a man blessed with courage and entrepreneurial abilities, decided to vinify his personal grapes cultivated on his own estates: the wine cellar of Leverano was built and this town became one of the most important trading districts in Puglia and South Italy. After the Second World War Alcibiade 's son, Count Giuseppe, introduced new techniques of vine-growing and in the winery he introduced the bottling of wine. Since 1500 the Conti Zecca 's wine passion carries on. Today the heirs - Count Alcibiade, Count Francesco, Count Luciano and Count Mario - carry on the family tradition devoting themselves to the family concern: from the selection of the ideal environment and the ideal clones to the planting of the vineyard, from the choice of the ideal agronomic techniques and the ideal grape harvesting time to the vinification and the bottling, for the production of high quality wines, considered among the best wines of Puglia. Conti Zecca wines from Salento Puglia, Italy The Apulian wine maker Conti Zecca produces and commercializes high quality red, rosè, and white wines from the 320 hectares of vineyards located between Leverano and Salice Salentino, in the South of Puglia, where the family owns its wine estates (Cantalupi Estate, Donna Marzia Estate, Saraceno Estate and Santo Stefano Estate), an area well-known for the production of the great DOC wines of Puglia. On Conti Zecca 's four wine estates native vines (Primitivo, Negroamaro, Black Malmsey, Aglianico, Fiano, White Malmsey, Chardonnay and Vermentino) and some international grapes (Cabernet Sauvignon) are cultivated for the production of the esteemed white, rosè and red wines of Puglia. The direct control of the vineyards allows Conti Zecca to assure to the consumer high quality wines to a very good price. Conti Zecca produces a large range of high quality red, rosè and white wines: from the Wines of the Estates" (Cantalupi, Donna Marzia, Saraceno and Santo Stefano) to the appreciated Wines of the Selections. Among them the red wine Nero Conti Zecca, very-well reviewed by the best Italian and foreign wine guides (it is the only Apulian wine to be winning for six consecutive years with Gambero Rosso three glasses). Nero Conti Zecca, 70% Negroamaro and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, was born by an intuition of the Zecca brothers who, in the Eighties, decided to introduce and taste on their own wine estates, and more precisely on Cantalupi Estate, selected clones of Cabernet Sauvignon. Nero was commercialized for the first time in 1999 with the vintage 1997. The vintage 1998 was a great success: the wine experts immediately looked at this red wine of Puglia as a novelty in the oenological regional and national outline for the combination between an Apulian native vine (Negroamaro) and an international vine (Cabernet Sauvignon) that made it one of the best red wines in Puglia. Beyond the famous Nero, the Selections include: Terra Conti Zecca, Cantalupi Riserva Conti Zecca, Primitivo Conti Zecca, Negramaro Conti Zecca, Cantalupi Rosè Conti Zecca, Luna Conti Zecca, Fiano Conti Zecca, Malvasia Bianca Conti Zecca and Sole Conti Zecca: high quality wines thanks to which Conti Zecca Agricultural Farm promotes in Italy and alla over the world the viticultural and oenological potentialities of Salento and Puglia.