Messapicus is one of Italy's elite estates pushing to replace quantity with quality in Puglia's wine production. Messapicus' wines are distinctly Southern Italian, with the heat and warmth of the area shining through in every bottle. Messapicus presents excellent examples of traditional regional wines, including the conspicuous Salice Salentino, as well as this month's lovely Primitivo.
Most Primitivo is grown in Puglia, the heel of Italy, and it's the country's 12th most widely-planted grape. Historically, the grape was fermented and shipped north to Tuscany and Piedmont. There it was used as a blending grape to enhance the body of the thin red wines produced in those areas. Primitivo brings deep color to wines and introduces a pleasant hint of wild cherry.
The grape found its way to the United States in the mid 19th century, and became known as "Zinfandel." The cuttings were obtained from Italy by Augustine Harazthy. In 1850 he convinced the governor of California to finance a trip to Europe to bring back grape cuttings to jumpstart California's wine industry. Harazthy was a better salesman than scientist, because while he did bring back over 100,000 cuttings from all over Europe, he didn't label what they were or where they came from. It took over 100 years to sort it all out.
Austin Goheen, a professor at UC Davis, visited Italy in 1967. The Primitivo he tasted reminded him of Zinfandel. After several years of testing, it was confirmed to be Zinfandel. He thought a mystery was solved, but it was not. Thirty years later it was discovered that Primitivo was not a native grape of Italy. It was from Croatia where it was called "Plavic Mali." This was a sweet victory for the Croatians. For decades that had declared that their grape was the origin of Primitivo and Zinfandel. Finally, they were proven correct.
November 2009 Limited Series Newsletter (.pdf)
