Hot on the Heels of Primitivo

Puglia’s vineyards cover 110,000ha (hectares), a fraction less than Bordeaux – figures likely soon to be reversed as the EU is subsidizing expansion in the former and retraction in the latter. Of these, 65,000ha are vinified by cantine sociali (cooperatives), so it was fitting that two of the Best Wine group were co-ops while three were family-owned estates.

The production of wine in Puglia is spread across the main regions of Brindisi facing the Adriatic Sea in the north; Lecce and Taranto facing the Ionian Sea in the south; and Salice Salentino, which has its own DOC, in the middle.

If there is a general rather than a regional name, it is Wines of Salento, covering seven DOCs and as many IGTs as the producers are prepared to make.

Most of the reds are from Negroamaro (often blended with up to 30 percent Malvasia Nero to soften the tannins), Primitivo and the recently revived Susumaniello. The aromatic but still dry whites come from unblended Malvasia Bianco, Fiano and Vermentino, with Aleatico and Moscato for sweet whites. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Chardonnay have been planted recently, in my view detracting from the regional character typified by the red Primitivo.

So named due to its early ripening, Primitivo arrived in Puglia unannounced in the 1870s. Some say that it was a degenerative Pinot Noir first imported into Italy by the Benedictines, following the suppression of religious properties by Napoleon; others that it was a cousin of the Piedmontese Dolcetto.

It was planted in Manduria in 1881, finding a congenial microclimate in which it flourished, quickly acquiring the name (now a DOC) Primitivo di Manduria; in those days wines often took the name of the train station from which the barrels were exported. Research since 1967 at the University of California, Davis, ended in 1998 with Professor Carole Meredith confirming that Primitivo and Zinfandel (and Plavac Mali from Croatia) were the sons of the same parents.

The Manduria Cooperative, founded in 1932 and now with 400 members farming 900ha, styles itself “The Master of Primitivo, the soul of traditional Salento”. In case there was any doubt, it has published The Renaissance of Primitivo di Manduria, a coffee-table book whose drum-beating is infectious: ‘If the town is now successful, it is mainly thanks to a wine called Primitivo – powerful, fragrant like a vamp, with a rapt color, an antique and present flavor.

For decades it gave lymph and body to wines of scanty personality yet much more celebrated of the north. In Milan they watered it and peddled it as Barbera; in France it strengthened the Pinot Noir, an arrogant relative. It was an immigrant.’

Primitivo was made a DOC in 1974 but this risked being rescinded for ‘non-use’. But now it is back – Silvio Berlusconi even serves it at presidential dinners.