It is the first rosé wine bottled and sold in Italy. It was 1943. Ninety per cent of Negroamaro and ten per cent of Malvasia Black. In its name the echo of a quarter in Salice Salentino’s fief, “ Five Roses” , but also the tradition, nearly legend, connected to the fact that every Leone de Castris got five children for many generations. Nearly over the end of the Second World War, general Charles Poletti, responsible for allies’ procurements, asked for a huge provision of rosé wine. An Italian wine, but with an American name. This is how Five Roses was born. Five Roses, that in the very special version of 60° Anniversary, vintage 2003, has been rewarded with the Oscar 2005 as the best rosé wine, by Bibenda&Duemilavini AIS. The vintage 2006, 63° Anniversary, has received Three Roses (the same as Three Glasses) from Gambero Rosso . Anniversary is different from traditional Five Roses, both in taste and in market positioning, with its Eighty percent of Negroamaro (against 90% that usually marks the traditional version) and Twenty per cent of Malvasia (instead of 10). An extremely special product, born in 1993 to celebrate the 50° year from the birth of Five Roses and the consequent choice of the oldest vineyards for its production. A wine, as Piernicola Leone de Castris describes it “still more complex, with a higher alcoholic content”, being distributed only in restaurants and wine-shops.

“Five Roses of Negroamaro”, a novel to drink telling the story of Leone de Castris’ “Five Roses”.
The book tells the story of Leone de Castris memorable label, the well known “Five Roses”.
A hundred thousand of copies printed to be offered as a gift to Five Roses lovers.

A fascinating story in which a businessman with an exceptional temperament, the lawyer Don Piero, the now director’s grandfather, managed to take the best of the innumerable and tragic difficulties of producing good quality wine during some of the worst pages of Italian history, 8th September Armistice. In a taken Apulia, at the end of ’43, among bombings, omnipotent generals and the Exchange closed, the protagonist was able to produce an excellent and innovative wine for a new generation of consumers, creating the bases for after war export improvements. The story, getting till today through three generations, proceeds like a novel to be tasted and drunk that keeps the reader’s attention alive while telling of vineyards and wines.