Pietra Pura Mandus Primitivo di Manduria 2022 - Puglia, Italy

Bronze - Natalie MacLean (2019 vintage)
Bronze - Natalie MacLean (2018 vintage)
Bronze - Natalie MacLean (2017 vintage)
Bronze - Natalie MacLean (2016 vintage)
Bronze - Natalie MacLean (2015 vintage)

Silver - Mundus Vini (2021 vintage)
Silver - Mundus Vini (2019 vintage)

Organic - currently undergoing certification

Natalie MacLean "Rich & juicy....So much happening here and it all comes together nicely with great acidity for food....100% Primitivo produced from select grapes from the area of San Marzano in the Salento region of Puglia. Intense on the nose and complex on the palate with layers of dark plum, cocoa, anise, pepper and toasty oak spice, cold tea and smoky vanilla flavours." (2019 vintage)

Natalie MacLean,"This is a rich and juicy Zinfandel produced from select grapes from the area of San Marzano in the Salento region of Puglia. Smooth and lush with ripe blueberry, red berry, plum, vanilla, toasty oak spice finishing with a whiff of smoke on the palate.'' (2018 vintage)

Natalie MacLean,'' well-priced Primitivo Di Manduria from the Puglia wine region with rich mocha, ripe black raspberry, blueberry and smoky flavours. Pair with rack of lamb.'' (2017 vintage)

Natalie MacLean,"This Primitivo Di Manduria from the Puglia wine region is dark chocolate and a mouthful of black and blueberry flavours. This Zinfandel is produced from select grapes from the area of San Marzano in the Salento region of Puglia. Mocha and sweet chocolate on the nose from oak aging. This Italian red wine also features sweet blackberry and blueberry flavours. Smooth and full-bodied. Perfect for barbecued ribs or chicken wings.'' (2016 vintage)

Natalie MacLean,''Mocha and sweet chocolate on the nose from oak aging. This Italian red wine also features sweet blackberry and blueberry flavours. Smooth and full-bodied. Perfect for barbecued ribs or chicken wings.'' (2015 vintage)

100% Primitivo

The PietraPura range is a successful collaboration with famous winery group, Rocca delle Macìe which makes the most of the native vines of the Salento area to create wines that express the very best of the terroir.

Rocca delle Macìe has combined experience and expertise to create three different types of wine using Primitivo and Negroamaro grapes. Mandus and Cotis, two expressions of Primitivo di Manduria DOC, Dolceluna – Primitivo Dolce Naturale DOCG- and Negramaro -Salento IGT- represent the high end of the range and are produced using grapes cultivated in vineyards selected by Rocca delle Macìe’s technicians.

The grapes are then vinified and bottled in the Puglia Region, under the watchful eye of the Zingarelli family’s chief winemaker, Luca Francioni. Rocca delle Macìe was established in 1973, when Italo Zingarelli – producer of Ettore Scola’s “We All Loved Each Other So Much”, and also of the wildly popular series of films featuring comedy duo Bud Spencer and Terence Hill (including “They Call Me Trinity” and “Trinity Is Still My Name”) – decided to realize his lifelong dream by acquiring the “Le Macìe” estate – extending across 93 hectares (230 acres) in all, of which only two were under vine – in order to create a winery in the heart of the Chianti Classico zone.

Puglia, also known as Apulia, is a long, narrow region comprising the heel of southern Italy's boot. Puglia is a major producer of both wine grapes and table grapes. Its name comes from a-pulvia, or “lack of rain” in Roman. The terroir is influenced by a sunny, warm Mediterranean climate with breezes from the Adriatic sea and fertile soil rich in limestone. The Puglian wine region is divided into three subregions: Foggia in the north, Bari and Taranto in the center, and Brindisi and Lecce in the south.

After Veneto, Puglia is tied with Sicily as the second biggest wine region in Italy. The Puglia area is mostly home to grape growers, rather than wine producers. However, there are winemakers producing quality wines in Puglia in smaller quantities. In addition to grapes, Puglia produces 40 percent of Italy's olive oil.

The grape of most interest to non-Italians is the early-ripening Primitivo, a speciality of the Gioia del Colle plain just south of Bari and Manduria, the western coast of the heel just south of Taranto. DNA analysis has proved what many had suspected all along, that this vine variety is one and the same as California's Zinfandel.

Primitivo is a dark-skinned grape known for producing inky, tannic wines, particularly Primitivo di Manduria and its naturally sweet Dolce Naturale variant. Although there have been contentious and long-running debates about the variety's geographical origins, there is little question that Primitivo's modern-day home is in southern Italy, particularly Puglia.