A shocking name for a wine at first sight. But this is how it is. What really matters is that this wine is excellent – and full of character.

Primitivo di Manduria is a heavy, blunt red wine; an effect of the warm growing conditions in Southern Italy’s Apulia region.

The quality of Primitivo wine has been recognized in Italy for centuries. It was once mainly used for blending by more commercially successful wineries in Northern Italy. They relied on it to give their wines depth. Because of a general lack of commercialization in Apulia, Primitivo is still largely unknown outside of Italy. Small-scale producers have a hard time reaching the international market to compete on the same level as more famous Italian wine varieties.

The Primitivo grape variety was discovered to be genetically similar to California’s Zinfandel. It has its roots in the oldest of wine traditions. While some claim that the Primitivo grape is originated in ancient Greece and been brought over by some of the first settlers of the Italian peninsula, recent research based upon DNA has shown it to be geneticall identical to a Croatian varietal.

Primitivo di Manduria DOC is made from 100% Primitivo grapes (unlike other Primitivo wines, like Gioia del Colle Primitivo, which are blends). This wine is also characterized by an unusually high alcohol by volume percentage – around 14%. Wines made from Primitivo have notes of plum and spice, like Zinfandel, but because of different growing soils and climate, the fruit character is less jammy, the structure more akin to old world wines, with rustic notes of earth and spice, as well as tamed fruit flavors

Source: Wikipedia

More on the primitivo here:

http://www.wine-searcher.com/regions-primitivo+di+manduria