Winemaker Notes
The 2020 Primitivo has a ruby purple color with better than average depth for Primitivo. The edges of the wine are bright and youthful with just a hint of a carmine hue. The aromas lift well from the glass and feature fresh red raspberries, strawberry and cherry. This is a fruit driven wine with no suggestion of plum, prune, or raisin. We have let the age of the barrels used for Primitivo lengthen. The percentage of neutral barrels (2 years or older) used to age the Primitivo has crept up to almost 25%. Despite our effort to reel in the oak a bit there is a significant bouquet of vanilla, hazelnut, with a hint of clove and allspice to frame the fresh juicy fruit. On the palate, succulent flavors of ripe red fruits blend with those of mocha and toasted oak on a medium-bodied wine. The fruit flavors transition seamlessly to a long lingering finish featuring mild tannins that are mature and well integrated.
This is an easy drinking wine ideal for pasta and pizza.
Loved for its inky, brambly, fruit-driven wines, the Primitivo grape actually has Croatian origin. Primitivo landed in Italy in the late 1800s and became an important variety in the hot, dry, southern region of Puglia. Here it was named from the Latin word, primativus, meaning "first to ripen." Somm Secret—No one knew Primitivo and Zinfandel were the same until 1994 when DNA profiling at UC Davis finally revealed the link. The grape goes by the name of Tribidrag in Croatia and is a parent to Plavac Mali.
As the lower part of the greater Sierra Foothills appellation, Amador is roughly a plateau whose vineyards grow at 1,200 to 2,000 feet in elevation. It is 100 miles east of both San Francisco and Napa Valley. Most of its wineries are in the oak-studded rolling hillsides of Shenandoah Valley or east in Fiddletown, where elevations are slightly higher.
The Sierra Foothills growing area was among the largest wine producers in the state during the gold rush of the late 1800s. The local wine industry enjoyed great success until just after the turn of the century when fortune-seekers moved elsewhere and its population diminished. With Prohibition, winemaking was totally abandoned, along with its vineyards. But some of these, especially Zinfandel, still remain and are the treasure chest of the Sierra Foothills as we know them.
Most Amador vines are planted in volcanic soils derived primarily from sandy clay loam and decomposed granite. Summer days are hot but nighttime temperatures typically drop 30 degrees and the humidity is low, making this an ideal environment for grape growing. Because there is adequate rain throughout the year and even snow in the winter, dry farming is possible.