This is the kind of red wine I picture in the goblet of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick the Second, who built the nearby Castel del Monte, after a long day of falconry. (And yes, the first Negroamaro cultivation in Puglia predates the 13th-century hunter-emperor and wine connoisseur by at least 600 years.) This Tormaresca 2016 Negroamaro Masseria Maìme pours from the bottle with pretty, dark intensity. It is generous and round, yet its level of ripeness feels contained compared to the much jammier expressions from 2017. The 2016 vintage offers a better sense of balance, with black fruit, plum, spice and sweet tobacco. Pair it with a freshly falconed pheasant leg or any dark-meat game dish.

The Tormaresca 2015 Negroamaro Masseria Maìme is a bold but balanced wine with dark plum, black currant and Morello cherry. You get some bitter almond and forest floor with light touches of green olive and tobacco. Thanks to 12 months of oak aging, the wine also displays some sweet spice and nutmeg. Serve it with a mixed crostini platter featuring liver terrine, stewed eggplant and porcini. 40,000 bottles were released.

Here's a wine that gives ample room to varietal expression. The 2012 Negroamaro Masseria Maìme delivers a generous supply of dark fruit and dried cherry backed by oak-spice and toast. The wine is thick in consistency and powerful in intensity although the mouthfeel feels relatively light and unencumbered. Give it another year or two to flesh out further.

Behold one of the most delicious new releases from Puglia: The 2011 Negroamaro Masseria Maìme. This is a charismatic expression executed in an approachable and modern style. In appearance, the wine shows dark lines of blackberry, prune and blackcurrant with generous background tones of chocolate, Indian spice, teriyaki and smokey barbecue sauce. Smooth tannins and ripe fruit flavors shape a wine that is both contoured, soft and yielding. It is ready to drink now, but could probably hold five years or more.

The 2010 Negroamaro Masseria Maime is one of the most approachable expressions of the Puglian grape varietal on the market today. It opens with a deep garnet/ruby color followed by red cherry and drying mineral notes of chalk and crushed stone. The overall effect is linear and direct with sharp contours that were not as evident in vintages of the recent past.