Schola Sarmenti Primitivo Critera 2014

Tasting Notes

This wine is produced from 25 year old bush vines harvested by hand. Despite its youth, this wine really delivers on the palate, bursting with sumptuous dark cherry and blackberry fruit. Rich, round, juicy, and expressive with a silky edged finish. Drink now, but be sure to save a few bottles to see how it develops.

Big rich Zin that opens up with time to show mellow, soft acidity and profuse flavours of milk chocolate, mulberry, toffee and cassis. Deeply satisfying in every way.

Food Pairings

Try with risotto, tomato based pasta, veal, beef, pizzas

Made from 100% Primitivo (Zinfandel) harvested and selected by hand. Maturation is in stainless steel.

Schola Sarmenti, a stunning winery with soaring ceilings sculpted from local tuff and lecce stone, dates from the mid-nineteenth century and is run by the Marra and Calabrese families. The vineyards are farmed organically and within sight of the warm waters of the Adriatic. Schola Sarmenti practises "green harvesting", where a portion of the immature crop is sacrificed (i.e. picked and discarded) mid-season to increase the ripeness and quality of the remaining bunches. It also uses the ancient Puglian vine training system, Alberello.

Primitivo is a black grape used to make inky, tannic wines in southern Italy, especially the Salento zone of Puglia. Originally from Croatia, where it is still bottled today under its awkward Crljenak Kasteljanski name, Primitivo is in fact most famous as California's Zinfandel.