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Sale
Rapid Ship
White
750ml
Bottle: $34.93 $35.99
12 bottles: $34.23
This has aromas of sliced apples, fresh pears, lemons and melon. Creamy and fresh with a light to medium body and...
JS
90
Sale
Red
750ml
Bottle: $18.32 $19.28
12 bottles: $14.00
Big, inky-black fruit, spice and white pepper; layered and rich in the mouth with jammy black cherries, truffles,...
Red
750ml
Bottle: $16.24
12 bottles: $15.92
Deep ruby red with violet reflections. Intense fruity bouquet with notes of plum and cherry, hints of Mediterranean...
White
750ml
Bottle: $18.94
12 bottles: $18.56
Tenuous straw-yellow color with greenish reflections. An intense and fine odor with persistent fruity and flowery...
Case only
White
750ml - Case of 12
Bottle: $27.34
A pale straw yellow color, with an immediate nose of white blossoms, chamomile, ripe peach and citrus fruit. On the...
Red
750ml
Bottle: $16.94
6 bottles: $16.60
A balanced, medium-bodied red, with light tannins and a subtle underpinning of fresh, loamy earth layered with...
WS
88
Sale
Red
750ml
Bottle: $14.41 $15.17
12 bottles: $12.36
Sale
Red
750ml
Bottle: $14.34 $15.59
12 bottles: $14.05
Dense ruby red with a purplish rim, it is immediately intense on the nose with marked aromas of ripe and fleshy red...
Red
750ml
Bottle: $14.73
12 bottles: $13.99
Dark, brooding and spicy, the 2019 Primitivo di Manduria lifts up with notes of crushed rocks, cardamom and black...
VM
89
JS
88
Sale
Red
750ml
Bottle: $16.90 $18.00
Raspberry coulis and fresh soil with grass popping through on the nose turns to an almost cake-like raspberry and...
WE
91
White
750ml
Bottle: $24.94
12 bottles: $24.44
A light-bodied, fruity red, with an earthy aroma giving way to strawberry and rose flavors. Features a lining of firm...
12 FREE
WS
88
White
750ml
Bottle: $17.05
12 bottles: $16.71
This wine is obtained by smoothly pressing the Cortese grapes grown in the villages of Gavi and Novi Ligure. Gavi is...
Sale
Red
750ml
Bottle: $13.93 $15.00
12 bottles: $13.65
100% Primitivo. Perrini's Primitivo comes from estate vines averaging 30 to 35 years old, with some getting up to 60...
Case only
White
750ml - Case of 12
Bottle: $13.80
Case only
White
750ml - Case of 12
Bottle: $17.32
100% Cortese. The perfect white to stock your fridge with when friends and family come over. Beautiful apricot and...
Red
750ml
Bottle: $14.94
12 bottles: $14.64
Opaque ruby. There is a savory, earthy aroma on the nose, reminiscent of meat cooking on an open fire. The palate is...
Sale
Red
750ml
Bottle: $10.92 $11.70
Monastrell made in eighty-year-old conofors (think dairy tanks but made of American oak). Filtered by gravity and,...
Sale
White
750ml
Bottle: $12.94 $14.30
12 bottles: $12.68
100% Cortese. The grapes used in this classic example of Gavi grew in the shadow of “Il Forte,” the iconic...
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $16.90
12 bottles: $16.56
Intense and complex of ripe red pulp fruit (cherry, plum, raspberry) in a balanced bottling with light wooden notes....
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $22.80
Dark ruby red, with garnet hues. It opens with notes of ripe blackberry and raspberry, followed by intense aromas of...

Cortese Other Italian Reds Mencia Primitivo

The Cortese white wine grape varietal has been grown in and around south Piedmont, Italy, for at least five hundred years. Its delicate nature and moderate acidity have made it a favorite with people around the world, and it is most commonly served alongside the excellent seafood and shellfish dishes of the part of Italy it is traditionally grown in. Cortese grapes are easily identifiable by their lime and greengage flavors, and their generally delicate and medium bodied character. Cortese wines are also notable for their freshness and crispness, again, making them an ideal match for seafood. Whilst colder years often produce harsher, more acidic Cortese wines, practices such as allowing malolactic fermentation can solve any such problems and still produce delicious white wines made from this varietal.

As with many European grape varietals, there is some debate regarding the precise origins of the Primitivo grape. Most people now agree that it probably came from Croatia, where it is still used widely in the production of red wine, and it known as Tribidrag. However, today it is a grape most commonly associated with the powerful red wines of Puglia, the heel of Italy’s boot, where the intense sunshine and brisk Mediterranean breezes produce grapes of remarkable character and balance. Primitivo is a dark grape, known for producing intense, inky, highly tannic wines, most notably the naturally sweet Dolce Naturale and the heavy and complex Primitivo di Manduria wines. Primitivo tends to be naturally very high in both tannin and alcohol, making it ideal for both barrel and cellar ageing, which brings out its more rounded and interesting features.


Primitivo is not the easiest grape to grow or manage, and it has had something of a difficult century. Indeed, by the 1990s, there was little interest in Puglian wines in general, and winemakers were neglecting their Primitivo vineyards and looking to other, more commercially viable varietals. However, the last decade has seen this grape come well and truly back into fashion, with new techniques and a heightened interest in native Italian grape varietals bringing Primitivo back into the spotlight. It is now widely loved for its intensity and ability to be paired with strongly flavored foods.