San Marzano makes this from the old bush vines around Manduria, in the far south of Puglia, where Primitivo has been grown for centuries and the vines are trained low to survive the heat. Sessantanni means sixty years, and the fruit comes from those old plants, which give far less per hectare and far more concentration in every berry.
- Primitivo, the grape of Manduria.
- Primitivo di Manduria DOP, Puglia, southern Italy.
- 2017 vintage, a warm and generous year.
- Old bush vines, low yields.
- Full bodied, dry, 14.5%.
How it is made
Primitivo is the same grape known in California as Zinfandel, and in Puglia it is grown almost exclusively for red wine. The DOP rules for Primitivo di Manduria require the wine to be made from the grape alone, and the best sites are the old alberello vines, bush trained and unirrigated, that ripen slowly in the Salento sun. Yields from vines of that age are a fraction of what a young vineyard gives.
How it tastes
Full and dry, with medium tannin and medium acidity holding the weight in place. Blackberry and dried fig lead, then dark chocolate and sweet spice, the kind that comes from ripe fruit rather than oak. The tannins are velvety rather than grippy, and the finish is long and warm.
Where it comes from
Manduria sits in the Salento peninsula, the heel of Italy, where the Adriatic and the Ionian meet. The soils are red and iron rich, the summers long and dry, and the sea breeze keeps the nights cooler than the inland. Primitivo has grown here since at least the eighteenth century, and the region's wines were once shipped north to add body to weaker vintages.
Good to know
Primitivo and Zinfandel were confirmed as the same variety by DNA testing in the 1990s, along with Croatia's Tribidrag, which is thought to be the original. The name Primitivo comes from the Latin primativus, for its habit of ripening earlier than everything around it.
