At one point PP tells me he is excited about us trying the cheapest wines for what gems he might discover. Yet when I tell him I am trying a Primitivo from Puglia he says he is not interested in junk from Southern Italy. I tell him to ease up with his snobbery and he keeps reverting to clay soils and Merlot from the Right Bank in France. He really can be annoying sometimes. I get the impression he is bullshitting me about his excitement about his “new bottom of the barrel” wine adventure. I tell him Primitivo was originally from Croatia and it was brought to California and became known as Zinfandel to which he replies he has no great affinity for “cheap barbeque wines”.
So let’s try a Primitivo from Puglia from Rivera. On the nose sweet red cherry, raspberry and milk chocolate. On the palate a low tannic load. A nice cut of cherry pie, watermelon and peppery spice. Well PP has a point that Primitivo makes a good (not a cheap) barbeque wine. Like PP get real do you want to drop over a $100 for a wine with your burger! Don’t be a prig. Loosen up and recognize finally you are a penniless pensioner with a few Panamanian bank accounts you seem to deny.
I’d say this is a cheerful wine fit for a traditional meal in Argentina of flank steak with chimichurri sauce and red onion and tomato salad on the side. It will do instead of a trophy high altitude Malbec from the Uco Valley! The slight ream of low-level acidity will suit the red onion and tomato salad. Drink now.
Drink now and yes it will suit a lowly burger made from ground sirloin and juzed up with hot pepper, Worchester Sauce, egg, breadcrumbs and sesame seed oil and whatever else you want to add to make a creative burger. The possibilities for a creative burger are endless.
(Rivera 2018 Primitivo Salento, IGT, Azienda Vinicola Rivera, Andria, Italy, $15.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 19590, 14%, 750 mL, Robert K. Stephen A Little Birdie Told Me So Rating 91/100).
