(TEL) Primitivo's Meteoric Rise as Our Favourite Cosy Sofa W

[AKR]

Primitivo's Meteoric Rise as Our Favourite Cosy Sofa Wine
2021-01-28 12:04:38.820 GMT


By Victoria Moore, Wine correspondent

(Telegraph) -- Wine trends move so slowly, yet so noisily, that I’ve usually
written about them three times before they hit the mainstream. Here’s one that
has been sneaking up for a while and exploded while we’ve all been staying at
home.

It’s the rise of a grape that makes the sort of brambly, generous reds that
would be perfect to order in a gastropub, if any were open, but which is
proving its mettle as a cosy sofa wine.

Waitrose says this grape has had a “meteoric rise”: it’s used to make the
supermarket’s bestselling Italian red, with sales up 26 per cent year-on-year.

I’m talking about primitivo, grown mainly in Puglia, the broiling southern
region that forms the spur and heel of Italy’s boot – though it didn’t
originally come from there. Look up primitivo in the bible of vine varieties,
Wine Grapes (Robinson, Harding and Vouillamoz, 2012), and you find that it
doesn’t actually have an independent entry.

It’s listed as a synonym for tribidrag, an ancient Dalmatian variety that made
its way to southern Italy, where, for a while, it was known as zagarese (a
reference either to the Croatian city of Zagreb or the scent of orange
blossom) and in the late 18th century earned the name primitivo on account of
being the first – primo – to ripen.

Tribidrag has another famous synonym. As zinfandel, it rose to fame as
California’s signature red grape: indeed, for a long time, many believed it
was native to the United States.

Back in the 1960s, though, a plant pathologist from the US Department of
Agriculture made a research trip to Puglia, where he noticed a remarkable
similarity between both the wines and vines of primitivo and zinfandel. DNA
sequencing has now shown that tribidrag, primitivo and zinfandel are indeed
one and the same grape.

However, I agree with Marco Bello, of Cantine de Falco in Puglia, who says:
“Zinfandel may have the same DNA as primitivo, but its face is different.”
Californian zinfandel can be made with very high alcohol levels; it’s not
uncommon for them to hit 15.5% or 16% abv, and flavours can have a russetty
suggestion of cough medicine, cinnamon, raspberries or red liquorice, plus the
vanilla of American oak. In Puglian primitivo, I usually find more
dark-coloured fruit (blackberries and damsons), refreshing acidity, and
quieter notes of black and red liquorice.

The recent rise of Puglian primitivo owes something to the success of the
Californian model. In the last decade of the 20th century, plantings of
primitivo in Puglia shrank, from 42,000 acres to less than 20,000, as growers,
incentivised by the EU vine-pull scheme, tore up their vineyards.

But the realisation there was a thirst for the sort of reds that primitivo
could make if it were bottled as a single variety, rather than blended,
inspired some producers to back this style of wine.

The strategy has paid off: demand has steadily increased around the world,
and, as a consequence, plantings of primitivo in Puglia have risen again, by
about half over the past 10 years. Gabriele de Falco, whose vineyard lies four
miles from the creamy limestone city of Lecce, makes the point that the
popularity of primitivo wines is “tied very much to the territory”.

Puglia has more than 500 miles of coastline, and with its trulli and sun-baked
countryside, it has become a popular holiday destination. “People come here,
they eat well, try good wine and in their minds the wine becomes tied to the
excellence of the place,” says De Falco. Pugliese primitivo has a softness and
warmth that recalls the intense, relaxing heat of the southern Italian sun,
too.

Depending on where exactly it’s grown, it can make very plush wines, thick
with alcohol and flavour, or wines that are more juicy and refreshing. Oak
brings spice; American oak underscores it with baking notes of vanilla, French
oak lends more savoury tastes.

We need to talk about sugar. It’s often said that drinkers talk dry and drink
sweet. Primitivo is one of only a few red wines that can have quite startling
levels of sweetness, often without the drinker realising it. To give you some
idea, I would expect a wine to taste bone-dry if it contained less than 2g per
litre of residual sugar. Some of the popular supermarket primitivos come in at
11g or 12g per litre.

For context, a teaspoon of sugar weighs 4.2g. A lot of the time, you might
translate this sweetness as “ripeness” or “richness” – unless you’re drinking
the wine with food, at which point it will show up more obviously.

I tend to like sweeter primitivos with spicy food – chilli actually needs a
wine with sugar in it to balance against the heat. So you might put one with
pizza with spicy salami or ’nduja, or pasta with an arrabiata sauce.

Victoria Mason, Italian wine buyer at Waitrose, says: “Our customers have
always loved the rich, ripe, warming reds of Puglia, and not just in the cold
winter months – they do consistently well throughout the year. They are also
fantastic with food; of course classic Italian dishes, but also Middle Eastern
lamb dishes.” I love this suggestion. The full flavour and smooth texture of
primitivo is good with the silkiness of aubergines, cooked either Puglian or
Middle Eastern style.

Looking for one to try? There are lots of good ones.

A Mano Primitivo 2019 (13.5%, The Wine Society , £9.50) is unoaked and dry,
and showcases the vibrant, brambly fruit of the grape – it’s lovely. Taste the
Difference Primitivo Salento 2019 (13.5%, Sainsbury’s , £7) is also at the
brighter, more elegant end of the scale and excellent value.

Two sweeter versions, tasting more like bramble jelly, and at the 11-12g/litre
of residual sugar end of the scale, are M&S Primitivo 2019 (13.5%, M&S , £7)
and The Best Primitivo 2019 (13.5%, Morrisons , £7.50). I like both of these;
the sugar is very well hidden and they are popular wines.

And finally, a more spicy, fragrant, atmospheric version is Gabriele’s wine:
Cantine de Falco Primitivo 2019 (13%, Lea & Sandeman , £8.95/£9.95 mixed
case/single bottle price).

Wines of the week

Percheron Shiraz Mourvèdre 2020

Western Cape, South Africa (14.5%, The Wine Society , £6.95)

Due to bans on the sale of alcohol, the pandemic “has left all of us in this
industry battered… and some of us already broken,” says Cape winemaker Bruce
Jack. This isn’t one of his wines, but it’s great value – a blend of shiraz
and mourvèdre that opens with light, juicy ease before black pepper notes kick
in.

Yalumba The Cigar The Menzies Vineyard 2015

Coonawarra, Australia (14.5%, Majestic , £25.99/22.99 single bottle/mix six
price)

Coonawarra is famous for its cabernet sauvignon, and this demonstrates why.
Fleshy, sweetly ripe and with an incredible, tantalising fresh tobacco and
cedar perfume that runs through the palate too. Moving to 2016 online but most
stores have the 2015.

Altolandon Extreme Bobal 2018

Manchuela, Spain (14%, Co-op , £10)

Bobal is one of those red grapes cursed with the tag “workhorse” – meaning
that it’s good for making lakes of generally undistinctive beaker wine. In the
last decade or two, though, winemakers have lovingly teased the best out of
it. Aged in French oak, this one is smooth, with a hint of cocoa powder and
hawthorn.

[Claret]

I like the Primitivo from Montoliva Winery in Chicago Park, CA. They are less than 15 minutes off of the I80 Colfax exit and do a really nice job with Southern Italians. Their Primitivo does have a different flavor profile than Zinfandel.