×
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $34.90
Very intense and elegant ruby red colour; broad and complex fruity fragrance with hints of plum, cherry jam and...
12 FREE
Sale
Red
750ml
Bottle: $28.93 $31.60
Ripe crunchy red forest fruits with notes of candied dark cherries. Rich and bold, with juicy tannins. (Bronze) -...
DC
89
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $9.94
12 bottles: $8.94
Notes of ripe plums, cherry jam and tobacco characterize the bouquet of this pure varietal Primitivo from the Apulia...
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $15.93 $16.76
12 bottles: $15.92
Sleek and elegant, this Barbera boasts rose, cherry, raspberry and iron flavors. Linear and bracing, with fine...
WS
92
JS
91
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $17.93
Plum and cherry aromas are ripe and rich with intense fruitiness. Sleek attack, quite concentrated and assertive, but...
DC
92
WA
90
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $30.90
12 bottles: $30.28
An outstanding example of Barbera from old vines, some dating back to 1949. Strained, deeply rooted plants produce...
12 FREE
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $76.94
Undergoing a four-week maceration followed by approximately nine months in French oak (50% new), Es is intoxicating:...
12 FREE
DC
96
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $24.50 $28.00
Ruby-red color with purple hues. A suitably intense bouquet of red berries and syrupy fruit with traces of tobacco...
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $14.34 $15.00
12 bottles: $14.25
A silky, succulent red, with pure blackberry and black cherry fruit shaded by a graphite note. On the elegant side,...
WS
92
DC
90
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $17.94
12 bottles: $17.58
Intense and complex of ripe red pulp fruit (cherry, plum, raspberry) in a balanced bottling with light wooden notes....
12 FREE
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $22.80
Dark ruby red, with garnet hues. It opens with notes of ripe blackberry and raspberry, followed by intense aromas of...
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $24.90
A heady dose of sweet spices grace the nose, with baked black-cherry and plum tones at the core. This is ultrasoft...
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $21.84
12 bottles: $20.90
Notes of ripe plums and blackberries with dark spicy chocolate, moist bark and wet asphalt. Juicy and racy on the...
JS
92
VM
91
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $14.84 $15.41
12 bottles: $14.64
The 2021 Barbera d'Asti Tre Vigne is a fabulous, explosive wine. Sumptuous dark cherry, ripe plum, mocha, licorice...
VM
92
JS
91

Barbera Sherry Primitivo Rapid Ship

For centuries now, the beautiful red grapes of the Barbera varietal have been grown in Italy, where they are prized for their unusual high acid content and low tannins, brought about by their thin skins. The Barbera grape varietal thrives in warmer climates, and has had some success overseas in the new world, where its strongly aromatic flavors of intense hedgerow fruits make it a favorite with wineries and wine drinkers looking for a grape which offers plenty of interesting characteristics. Interestingly, the differences between young and aged wines made from this varietal are quite significant, with younger bottles holding a plethora of berry flavors, including blueberry and raspberry notes, and oak aged wines made from the Barbera grape being much loved for their ability to become extremely complex and spicy, and picking up vanilla flavors from the wood they are barreled in.

Sherry is made in a unique way using the solera system, which blends fractional shares of young wine from oak barrels with older, more mature wines. Sherry has no vintage date because it is blended from a variety of years. Rare, old sherries can contain wine that dates back 25 to 50 years or more, the date the solera was begun. If a bottle has a date on it, it probably refers to the date the company was founded.

Most sherries begin with the Palomino grape, which enjoys a generally mild climate in and around the triad of towns known as the "Sherry Triangle" and grows in white, limestone and clay soils that look like beach sand. The Pedro Ximenez type of sweet sherry comes from the Pedro Ximenez grape.

Sherry is a "fortified" wine, which means that distilled, neutral spirits are used to fortify the sherry. The added liquor means that the final sherry will be 16 to 20 percent alcohol (higher than table wines) and that it will have a longer shelf life than table wines.

As with many European grape varietals, there is some debate regarding the precise origins of the Primitivo grape. Most people now agree that it probably came from Croatia, where it is still used widely in the production of red wine, and it known as Tribidrag. However, today it is a grape most commonly associated with the powerful red wines of Puglia, the heel of Italy’s boot, where the intense sunshine and brisk Mediterranean breezes produce grapes of remarkable character and balance. Primitivo is a dark grape, known for producing intense, inky, highly tannic wines, most notably the naturally sweet Dolce Naturale and the heavy and complex Primitivo di Manduria wines. Primitivo tends to be naturally very high in both tannin and alcohol, making it ideal for both barrel and cellar ageing, which brings out its more rounded and interesting features.


Primitivo is not the easiest grape to grow or manage, and it has had something of a difficult century. Indeed, by the 1990s, there was little interest in Puglian wines in general, and winemakers were neglecting their Primitivo vineyards and looking to other, more commercially viable varietals. However, the last decade has seen this grape come well and truly back into fashion, with new techniques and a heightened interest in native Italian grape varietals bringing Primitivo back into the spotlight. It is now widely loved for its intensity and ability to be paired with strongly flavored foods.