I introduce myself, I’m Andrea, I was born in 1987 and I live in Lecce, the city where I grew up, where art and baroque are breathed in all corners.
Since 2007 I’ve been working in the restaurant business, we would say food and beverage if we wanted to be modern; but knowing me, you would discover that I grew up in the middle of coffees of my grandparents’ bar which, even today, is owned and run by my family.

From the family bar I moved away when I felt the need of new experiences that took me out of Italy, where I became passionate about “5-star” hospitality, a world that taught me a lot.
First England, then Northern Italy, and then back to the South, in my Puglia.
Yes, in my region, where I decided to stay, together with my wife Alessandra and my family, and put definitive roots, like those of the typical Apulian wines trained as “alberello” as small trees.

I set myself again in the Apulian slow mood, spending three wonderful years working at Masseria San Domenico and then in my city, to follow the start up of a new small hotel, where I took care of the bar, wine cellar and restaurant. An intense experience, enough to decide subsequently to spend a quieter year: and so a new start for me in a small cooking school, where passionate and curious tourists approach the Apulian cuisine, genuine, home-made and eaten!

This is where I started telling the wines of my land and its producers, as an informal and passionate Sommelier.

I have combined complementary passions such as hospitality, love for my land and its winemakers, spending time praising those who produce them under an always hot sun. It was not enough for me and then, together with my wife Alessandra, we felt the need to welcome, we lacked daily hospitality, so in 2017 we decided to open our place, a B&B… Palazzo Belsanti.

It is a beautiful emotion and responsibility to know that you are chosen to welcome and take care of you; but the wine? You might ask ..
It’s time to introduce you to those people and their cellars that, like us, live for their land and for this they deserve to be visited and admired: come with me around vineyards, wines and cellars …

I’m waiting for you in Puglia.

Andrea De Carlo