Deeply coloured and exuberant on the nose, with intense perfumes of red and black fruit such as plum and raspberry, and Mediterranean spices. On the palate it is youthful and full-bodied, with a great balance between ripe, rounded fruit characters and smooth tannins.

Mark Shannon and Elvezia Sbalchiero, the duo behind A Mano, have worked in the wine business for most of their lives. Elvezia is a northern Italian wine marketing expert and Mark is a Californian winemaker. They fell in love with Puglia and, when they decided to start their own label, made it their home. By producing high quality wines, Mark and Elvezia have succeeded in making Primitivo one of Italy's most talked about grape varieties. They pay high prices for the best grapes from 70-100 year old vines and focus solely on quality and a modern style.

The grapes for this wine come from winemaker Mark's favourite vineyard on the coast of the Ionian Sea. The climate here is classically Mediterranean and soils are a crumbly, dark reddish-brown and radiate heat back into the vines. The Primitivo vines are quite old; most are the original bush vine plantings after phylloxera, called ‘Alberello’, and range from 70 to 100 years old.

The 2023 vintage saw very little rainfall and a very hot summer. This meant extra care was needed in the vineyard to manage the health of the vines. Harvest timing was critical for preserving the freshness of the fruit, and was brought forward to account for the increased speed of ripening due to the hot weather.

The Primitivo grapes were fermented for 36 hours without intervention before the free run juice was drawn off and chilled down to 12°C. The cold must was then reintroduced to the warm cap and thoroughly mixed. This complex step was carried to allow the cells in the grape skins to break down from the heat of fermentation and provide colour without alcohol extracting harsh tannins. The reintroduction of the cold must also provides the intense fruitiness of a cold fermentation. After racking, the wine remained in an underground cement tank at a controlled cool temperature until bottling to preserve freshness.