Menhir Salento
Primitivo di Manduria 2021

Primitivo got it’s name from the Latin term for “first to ripen” (primativus) – a characteristic of this grape varietal that is consistent across Puglia, including this wine from Menhir Salento.  Known as Zinfandel in the New World, this grape typically produces dark coloured, inky juice with lots of ripe fruit flavours.  The Italian version tends to have more tannin with less sweet fruit notes than the typical Californian style has.

The Menhir Salento vineyards in Primitivo di Manduria DOC were hand harvested and fermented in stainless steel tanks, then aged for 6 months in both French and American oak barriques.  This allows the firm tannins to finesse gently, while keeping structure in the wine.  After a year of bottle rest, this wine was exported and is ready to drink, but it can be held for another 2-3 years.

What is “Menhir”? The word has been adopted from the French term for “long stone”.  Menhirs are megalithic totem structures, that were set verticially into the ground by humans and astrologically oriented during the Bronze Age (4000-2000 BC).  These ‘standing stones’ vary in height and are typically tapered at the top.  It is common to find these structures around coasts, islands and peninsulas (such as Puglia) as explorers would travel by sea and use menhirs as a navigational reference point.  Although widely distributed across Europe, there are hundreds of menhirs in the Salento area, with the tallest one reaching 5.2 meters high above the ground.  The mystic energy that surrounds these structures lead Gaetano and Vito at Menhir Salento to name their winery after them, paying homage to the the ancient roots of this special area.