Basito

Varietal: Primitivo
Vintage: 2015
Region: Salento, Italy
Alcohol by Volume: 13%
MSRP: $21

When you’re enjoying Italian food, Basito Primitivo is the wine to drink with it. We often provide our club members unique and unexpected food and wine pairings, but when winemakers have spent thousands of years perfecting a wine to be enjoyed with the local cuisine, the combination is undeniable. Lush and fruity with hints of spice and oak, the Basito highlights and enhances the flavors of the Mediterranean like no other wine can.

REGION:

Salento makes up the southern end of Puglia, the heel of Italy’s boot, a peninsula of rolling hills and cooling seaside winds. Puglia is not only the country’s most prolific wine producing region, it is the heart of Italy’s agriculture, growing over half of the olives that form the backbone of Italian cooking. For more than 2,000 years, Salento has produced wine grapes coveted across the globe, with nearly every varietal thriving in the warm growing conditions along the Adriatic Sea.

WINEMAKERS:

Basito’s winery sits very close to the shore, benefiting from a terroir of rich and fertile sandstone soil, and gentle cooling winds from the Adriatic. These vineyards have grown Primitivo grapes for centuries, with the mellow evening temperatures maintaining freshness in a grape that is named for its early-ripening. Puglian Primitivo grapes were brought to America in the 19th century, where they are now known as Zinfandel, but the ideal conditions of Salento produce a full-bodied fruit-forward wine unlike any other.

TASTING NOTES:

Basito opens with aromas of peppery spice and inky dark fruits. Decadent flavors of figs, plum and baked blackberry give Primitivo great energy, while oak aging provides the structure and complexity that allows Basito to stand up to rich and flavorful foods. Weighty and powerful, the overall texture from this early ripening variety is warm, lush and fruity.