The Primitivo grape is the ancient European version of Zinfandel. In fact, Carole Meredith of UC Davis confirmed their DNA to be identical.

According to the winery, “Primitivo and Zinfandel, however, have not been officially defined as synonymous by the TTB. We presented Dr. Meredith’s findings with the Layer Cake Primitivo label and received the first-ever Certificate of Label Approval with Primitivo and Zinfandel used as synonyms on the label, yet the TTB has still not posted them as interchangeable in the regulations.”

So take the Zinfandel grape and make wine from it in an Italian style and you get this luscious wine from Layer Cake. It is great from the first sip and gets better as you enjoy it through the night.

Nose: Earthy plums, mocha, spice, herbs, earth and vines with a touch of menthol on the finish.

Taste: Beautiful balance, black cherries and plums with mocha and mint hints. Warm, rich and creamy in your mouth with hints of spice. “A real mouthful.” Our first reaction was we didn’t want to try it with food because we didn’t want to take anything away from this beautifully crafted wine.

Food: We paired this with a spinach and crab quiche — perhaps not the ideal pairing, but it was fantastic. Lots of black cherries, soft tannins to balance with the food. Wonderful.

Another great wine from Layer Cake.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 18th, 2010 at 6:19 pm and is filed under WineNotes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.