Wine: Bella Luna Primitivo 2011, Puglia

I FIND myself drinking rich southern red wines at this time of year in the hope that they will bring a little warmth and sunshine into my life (if only metaphorically).

Primitivo is a good example of this and is one of a few great but lesser known grapes from southern Italy that you need to know about along with Negroamaro (Puglia), Nero d’Avola (Sicily) and Aglianico (Basilicata), to name just three more.

This week I want to focus on Primitivo which seems to be having a run of popularity these days with at least one available in most off licences, usually from Puglia in the heel of Italy. This grape is rarely expensive and almost always eminently drinkable. In the 1970s it was discovered that Primitivo is almost identical to California’s Zinfandel and we now know that both are descendants of an obscure Croatian grape variety.