Primitivo di Salento Mocavero 2020

Primitivo di Salento Francesco Mocavero, rich, soft delightful, full bodied and juicy red wine, cassis, sweet spice, dark kirsch cherry! Try with some duck and a sweet sauce. Francesco Mocavero’s best selling wine in the UK from Puglia’s signature grape variety which does superbly well in the Salento region, trained to Albarello bushes in the sandy soils. The variety tends towards uppish alcohol and lower acidity when not kept in check but Mocavero’s style has loads of freshness and finesse. The well balanced structure and alcohol complements the dark damson fruit and hints of spice. Unlike big production Primitivo, there is no stewed flavours, no sickly sweet sugar and no cloying texture. This is just lovely ‘smooth’ red to drink at any time with anything.

Francesco Mocavero, what a guy.

When I first met him, he barely spoke, when asked about his wine, he said, 'e molto buono', that was it! But after a while his personality shone through as sure as the sun rises over his vines into a cloudless sky almost every day on his small wine farm in Lecce. A mild-mannered gentleman with impeccable style, Francesco understands the importance of picking early to preserve freshness in the wines from an otherwise overbaked region. He picks the Primitivo sometimes as early as the second week in August and by golly, it is fresh but at the same time, soft, full of fruit and with the characteristic dark cherry sweetness. Francesco is not a natural wine maker. He works his vineyard in as healthy a way as he can whilst ensuring a decent crop of grapes each year. All his wines offer great value for money and tend to suit most palates being some of the most approachable wines we sell. If you like red wine, try Mocavero, if you want a red for a gift then Mocavero is always a safe bet. Francesco is just like that, he is a man who likes to please. It is the Puglian way.