Primitivo di Manduria Dolce Naturale

Only in vintages that are particularly hot and dry—which is really saying something for southern Puglia—does Attanasio produce the locally legendary “Dolce Naturale” version of Primitivo. A parcel of the family’s oldest vines, planted in the early 1920s, is harvested and air-dried in a naturally ventilated room of the cellar for several weeks, thereby shriveling the grapes and concentrating their sugars. These raisinated berries are pressed for their meager amount of juice, and the wine finishes fermentation with around 75 grams per liter of residual sugar, then spends two years aging in stainless steel. Even in a wine this sweet and dense, the terroir roars through, with savory spice contributing high-toned elements that merge with the ample acidity and offset the sugar appealingly, offering fruit-spice interplay at its center and subtle echoes of the salinity and dusty tannins of its dry cellar-mates at its fringes.