The viticultural history of Puglia was mainly linked in the past to bulk wine. In fact the producers were all convinced that the cellars could only be represented by bulk wine, a lesson learnt from their early youth from their fathers who had operated in this manner all their lives. Up until the end of the last century, production in the region often exceeded - and by an ample margin - ten million hectoliters per year, only a fraction of which was bottled in their home area. The first major exception however, goes back several generations.

In 1925 Piero and Lisetta Leone de Castris began to bottle their own wines and, in 1943, the house created its celebrated Five Roses, a pioneering rosé wine in bottle (the name was inspired by the fact that, for many generations, the Leone de Castris family had always had five children and also by the fact that there was a sub-zone called Cinque Rose in the Salice Salentino area).