Primitivo di Manduria

Primitivo di Manduria is the grape's home appellation: a DOC since 1974 on the red, iron-stained plain behind the Ionian coast of Salento, where old bush vines ripen fast and hard under a fierce southern sun. It is the ripest, warmest and plushest face of Primitivo — deep purple-crimson, full-bodied, soft-tannined and low in acid, with jammy black fruit, dried fig, sweet spice and a legal minimum alcohol of 13.5 percent that is among the highest of any dry Italian red.