2015 Primitivo Riserva Red (Salento)

Gianfranco Fino is one of Italy’s top red wine estates. Fino’s Primitivo Es is about as iconic a red as there is in Italy today. Fino makes other wines as well (including the Negramaro Jo) all of them from head-trained vines ranging from 60 to 100 years old planted on red soils. In the best years, Fino bottles Riserva Primitivo made from a selection of the oldest vines in the same six parcels he uses for the Es. The entry-level Primitivo Se is a selection from younger vines currently only about six years old. The vineyards are worked with a horse, Bruno, as they are too hard to maintain by machine. All in all, the estate owns or rents about 20 hectares, divided into 14 or 15 parcels, and makes roughly 23,000 bottles a year. The vineyards are mostly in the territories of Sava, Manduria and San Pietro in Bevagna. Fino left the Primitivo di Manduria DOC in 2014 because he disagreed with DOC guidelines that he believed to be both wrong and too lax. For example, the guidelines permit calling a wine Primitivo di Manduria even though it might be made with only 85% Primitivo and another 15% that could be even Cabernet Sauvignon, a grape variety that frankly has no place in Manduria. Even worse, bottlers can buy cheap bulk wine, bottle it in places as far away as Sweden, and still label it Primitivo di Manduria.