Leone de Castris is one of the oldest and most historic wine estates in Puglia, based at Salice Salentino in the Salento peninsula (southern Puglia). The estate was founded in 1665 and is most famous for Five Roses marketed as one of the first commercially bottled rosé wines in Italy when first exported in 1943 as a supply to Allied troops. The estate produces across the full range of Salento varieties: Primitivo, Negroamaro, and Malvasia Nera as reds, with the Five Roses rosé as the flagship.

The Salento peninsula is one of Italy's warmest wine zones deep red soils, intense sun, low rainfall producing Primitivo and Negroamaro with the variety's characteristic weight, ripe fruit, and high extract. Five Roses rosé from Negroamaro is now one of southern Italy's most recognisable rosé labels, and the Salice Salentino DOC reds (Negroamaro-based) provide the estate's aged red tier. For programmes featuring Italian southern reds and seeking the Puglia counterpart to Sicilian and Campanian selections, Leone de Castris covers the Salento peninsula with historical estate depth.