Primitivo
Southern Italian (Apulian) red grape, genetically the same as California's zinfandel and Croatia's tribidrag.
About the grape
Primitivo is the southern Italian twin of Croatia's tribidrag (crljenak kastelanski), brought from the Dalmatian coast to Apulia, and is the same variety as California's zinfandel. In Apulia it is made into both dry and sweet wines: the dry is not unlike a light-bodied American zinfandel, while the sweet version — the DOCG primitivo di Manduria dolce naturale — is a rare red made from grapes allowed to raisinate on the vine, with roughly 8 percent residual sugar and produced only in favorable vintages.
