San Marzano Talò Primitivo di Manduria 2023
£13.95
The wine
A rich and opulent wine with vibrant flavours of ripe cherry and plum combined with subtle overtones of cocoa and vanilla. Velvety and textured, with brambly fruit on the palate and a warm finish. This packs a real punch of flavour.
Primitivo di Manduria is the appellation that gave the grape its reputation, centred on the town of Manduria where the soils turn to red earth over limestone. The zone permits higher alcohol than most Italian DOCs, in recognition of how readily Primitivo ripens here. Talo is the range of native varietal wines, and this one carries a substantial dose of ripe fruit and oak spice.
The producer
San Marzano
View all San Marzano winesIn 1962 nineteen growers in the village of San Marzano pooled their vineyards and founded a cooperative. More than sixty years later it draws on over 1,200 growers across Salento and the Manduria hills, and has become one of the most professional and forward-thinking houses in southern Italy.
The real asset is the old vines. Much of Puglia is still planted to alberello, the free-standing bush training the Greeks brought to the region, in which each vine stands alone without wires or posts. It cannot be machine harvested and it crops very little, but the fruit it gives is concentrated in a way trellised vines rarely match. Some of the plots behind Sessantanni and Anniversario 62 are well past sixty years old, and the names say exactly that.
The range is built on the three native reds of the heel of Italy: Primitivo, genetically identical to Zinfandel; Negroamaro, whose name means roughly black and bitter; and the near-forgotten Susumaniello. Passion and competence are the stated bywords, and the run of awards suggests they are more than a slogan.
