Rosati from the Montepulciano grape during judging at Radici del Sud 2026

One morning last week at Radici del Sud in Puglia, I tasted and judged 38 Rosati wines from the southern end of Italy dominated by eleven different grapes: from the familiar primitivo (think zinfandel in the US but NOT white zin!) to new grapes to me like Magliocco from Calabria. Pictured above is the first flight with a wide range of colors of six different and delicious Montepulciano — four from Abruzzo and two from Puglia. Surprisingly, the next flight all matched in color! Flight three had Rosati from three different grapes, and color variation again. Total, we had six flights of six wines plus two stragglers.

International judges at Radici del Sud 2026: Katarina Andersson, Nanyoung Baek, Antonello Nicastri and Gwendolyn Alley (Wine Predator)