L'Archetipo farms in Puglia, on the Salento peninsula, where Primitivo has grown for centuries. The grape is the same one California calls Zinfandel, though it arrived there by a longer route than most drinkers expect. This is the 2018, a warm year that gave the fruit plenty of room to ripen.
- Primitivo, a grape the Salento has grown for centuries.
- Primitivo di Manduria, the appellation on the Salento peninsula.
- 2018, a warm vintage in Puglia.
- Full-bodied, dry, medium tannin, medium acidity.
- 14% abv.
How it is made
Primitivo ripens early, which is where the name comes from, and in the heat of the Salento it accumulates sugar fast. The appellation rules for Primitivo di Manduria are built around that: a minimum alcohol, a minimum share of the grape, and a zone drawn tightly around the peninsula between the Ionian and Adriatic coasts. The wine is dry, though the ripeness of the fruit reads sweet.
How it tastes
Blackberry and dried fig first, then sweet spice and a long finish of dark chocolate. The tannins are firm but not aggressive, and the acidity stays medium, which keeps a wine of this weight from going flat. Full-bodied and dry throughout.
Where it comes from
The Salento is the heel of Italy, a flat, sunlit peninsula of limestone and red earth, with sea on two sides. Manduria sits near the Ionian coast, and its old bush vines, many of them ungrafted, are among the oldest in the region. Primitivo di Manduria was granted DOC status in 1974, one of the first in Puglia.
Good to know
Primitivo and Zinfandel are the same variety, separated by an ocean and a few hundred years of naming. The Adriatic side of the peninsula is where much of it is still grown as alberello, the low bush vine trained without a trellis, which is hard on the back and easy on the grape.
