Located in Italy’s southeast section, Apulia (Puglia in Italian) is the wine region lying in the “heel” of Italy’s bootshaped land mass. There are over 260,000 vineyard acres planted with numerous grape varieties in the Apulia region. The primary red grapes are Negroamaro, Primitivo (see ZINFANDEL), MALVASIA Nera, and UVA DI TROIA. The white grape varieties, led by Verdeca, include Bianco d’Alessano, BOMBINO BIANCO, Malvasia Bianca, and TREBBIANO. The wine output from this area is tremendous and usually competes with SICILY for the largest production of Italy’s twenty wine regions. The quality of the wines, however, is generally not very high. This is somewhat evidenced by the tiny amount of DOC-quality wine produced (less than 2 percent of the region’s total production), although many of the region’s good wines are not qualified to be DOCs. Apulia’s twenty-five DOCs are Aleatico di Puglia, Alezio, Brindisi, Cacc’e mmitte di Lucera, CASTEL DEL MONTE, Copertino, Galatina, Gioia del Colle, Gravina, Leverano, Lizzano, Locorotondo, Martina or Martina Franca, Matino, Moscato di Trani, Nardò, Orta Nova, Ostuni, Primitivo di Manduria, Rosso Barletta, Rosso Canosa or Canasium, Rosso di Cerignola, SALICE SALENTINO, San Severo, and Squinzano. Much of this region’s wine production is further processed into VERMOUTH or other APÉRITIF-type wine.