Primitivo (not primitive)

Hello,

Primitivo has a reputation, and it smells of cooked fruit: on the scorching Apulian plain, the sugar gets away from the variety; fifteen per cent is normal there, jam in a glass.

Yet the antidote is written into the name itself. In 1799, the priest Francesco Filippo Indellicati christened the vine primativus, the early one, because it ripens in mid-August, when nothing else in Puglia has yet made it to the cellar. Vito D’Onghia takes this literally: his vines stand at a good 300 metres on the Murgia plateau, twenty kilometres from Gioia del Colle, where the variety received its name, and the nights up there cool down considerably. His Primitivo stays at thirteen per cent. His Negroamaro, at eleven, is so light on its feet that Vito calls it “my rosé”.

Petracavallo is new to us, and I am delighted to introduce the two wines to you today:

One click adds six bottles to your basket, three of each wine; in the basket you can freely adjust the quantities or remove wines. It is a suggestion, not a fixed set.

The Wager

Vito had left Puglia and worked abroad. Homesickness brought him back, and one wish set the direction: to drink a wine like the one his grandfather had let him taste as a child. In 2015, he and his father Peppino bottled for the first time what the family had sold as grapes for generations. It was almost a wager between the two of them.

Some of the pressing still takes place on his grandfather’s vertical basket press, and I like the thought that the wine which brought Vito home passes through the very same press.

Red Earth over Limestone

Mottola sits on a ridge of the Murgia; the locals call the area the balcony of Puglia. Red earth over pale limestone, cut through by karst ravines, the Gravine. In 1220, Saint Francis is said to have spent the night here on his way back from Egypt; a baron later named the estate after him and founded a chapel. Vito chose the older place name for his wines: Petra Cavallo.

Cover crops grow between the vine rows, the harvest is done by hand into small crates, and in the cellar the wines ferment spontaneously in stainless steel, without fining, without filtration, with just a touch of sulphur added at bottling. The estate is organically certified and a member of VinNatur, where residue analyses and vineyard inspections are mandatory.

Add directly to your basket:

These two are not the end of it, incidentally: the D’Onghias are currently bringing back the almost-forgotten Minutolo, an old Apulian white variety. And since 2019, Luigi Notarnicola, an artist from Mottola, has been painting the labels for the “Linea Pop”. We will share both as soon as they are available.

If you would like to get in touch, simply reply to this email; I welcome every message.

Warm regards from Berlin,

Lisa and the team at
Living Wines

P.S.: Both reds show particularly well in the Zalto Universal; I also pour the Negroamaro from it chilled, topping it up in small pours so it stays at temperature.