Grifone Primitivo – Trader Joe’s 5 Buck Fun Italian
$5 wine should not be drinkable.
Especially when a part of that five dollars is used to ship the wine to America and then to a Trader Joe’s near you.
But the Grifone Primitivo 2020 drinks just fine; it is an enjoyable red wine.
Primitivo and Zinfandel are both clones of an old grape from Croatia.
Close but not the same. The Grifone Primitivo is sourced from Puglia in the heel of Italy’s boot.
It is way better than you would think.
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welcome it’s um domain Dave again cheap
windfinder.com
with a uh cheapy this time
um what do we have here we got the gone
Primitivo from Puglia in
Italy
2020 it’s $4.99
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which is crazy price thinking that they
had to ship it all the way from Italy
and
then whoever you are in the United
States if you’re listening in the United
States it’s a wine that they’ve had for
at least 10 years that’s been a Trader
Joe’s exclusive for a
while and
primitiva is
a let me rephrase that
Primitivo and zendel are two different
clones of the same
grape there is a grape from Croatia
which I cannot pronounce like most words
but
um it’s obscure grape that’s been around
for like a thousand years and it’s kind
of strange a little bit and it’s funny
how things work out this original grape
isn’t
popular but it kind of thrived in
Puglia and it’s a big business in the in
California so it
somehow failed at home and became a big
star overseas I
guess and while it is a clone of
zendel but like a a rose can be a single
rose or a double rose or pink or red or
whatever the and it’s all a rose they’re
not exactly the same
one thing um when the Primitivo grape
ripens they ripen uniformly all at the
same time easy to
pick the zendel
grape doesn’t at least doesn’t all the
time you can
have overripe you know um and then you
have grapes that aren’t ripe and in
between you have a bunch that are ripe
and you know so and that’s one of the
reasons that zendel has this spicy
unique characteristic cuz it’s a weird
grape it doesn’t ripen and Primitivo
does so
um it’s you know you know Primitivo is
popular in Italy it’s a everyday wine
there are a few special areas that do
higher end wines this is an IGT or
igp wine which means it’s of the region
but you know it it didn’t have to go
through all the rules and regulations of
the top end
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wines and that’s actually good wine
especially at a $4.99 one that’s
perfectly
fine and uh the tasting notes said that
there was some vanilla in there which at
$4.99 that meant some sort of um Oak
that’s where the vanilla flavors come
from so for $4.99 that’s pretty good and
so how is the wine not bad not bad at
all it’s got ripe fruit flavors it’s
nectar sweet take a
[Applause]
sip to my taste the there is some spice
there and it’s a little
bit not balanced just a little bit but
it’s $4.99 I ain’t complaining about a
$499 wine not being the most balanced
wine it doesn’t really roomin the flavor
profile at all but just saying that you
know if I want this one to be perfect
I’d want the um the spice to be better
integrated one thing in its favor is
that it has tannins it has a little pull
in the back of your palet from the
tannins and often very inexpensive wines
are kind of neutered if they don’t have
the acidity and they don’t have the
tannins and this one has it it’s this is
a proper wine and it’s not
expensive $4.99 you know I was thinking
like we’re coming up to the holiday
season we’re still early in that but you
know if you’re having a party and
there’s like four glasses to a
bottle $4.99 you know a case is 60 bucks
mean that’s a that’s a lot of wine uh
you know glasses of wine you’re going to
need a lot of people for that but this
is something that you’re just pouring
wine in someone’s glass and they’re
enjoying themselves would work it’s
Crystal Clear I mean to see-through it
seems to be really well
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made took another Sip and as the wine
opens up more the the spice does calm
itself down it’s just
that it’s not like a good zendel will
have the spice you look forward to this
has a little spice that has a slight
bite to it but like I said as it opens
up that goes away so there you go the
gon privo
2020 Trader Joe’s 499 will get you a
decent red wine let it open up and you
won’t have to worry about the sharpness
of the uh spice everything else is not
bad at all it tastes great so that’s it
for me I’ve got a uh
canos chardet coming up another cheapy
so
we’ll drink some high-end wines that
don’t cost much and that’s it for me
keep it cheap stay safe keep it cool or
keep it warm CU this type of weather you
never know and adios I’ll be talking to
everybody in a couple days so bye-bye
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