Feudo di Santa Croce Prmitivo 2005

The wines of Apulia never fail to amaze me. They are big, bold, delicious and (for now, anyway) gloriously inexpensive. The Feudo di Santa Croce Primitivo 2005 is a wine from the Salento region. 2005 was a great vintage year in southern Italy. This wine is big, ripe and luscious, with a fragrant nose redolent of spice and fruit. It has a full, satisfying mouthfeel, unlike many Tuscan wines which are rather thin. The Primitivo grape is virtually the same as Zinfandel, but makes quite a different wine in its Italian incarnation. This wine is dark and is fairly bursting with fruit, but the fruit is balanced by adequate acidity, and just a touch of appealing bitterness in the long finish. This may be a hard wine to find, but look for it. It will be worth the effort. I give this wine a perfect 5/5 on my value scale.