Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Manduria — capital of the Primitivo zone, a grape genetically identical to Zinfandel, originally brought from Dalmatia — celebrates its own harvest with a proper festival, tastings of the rare fortified Primitivo di Manduria Dolce Naturale DOCG alongside the standard DOC (protected since 1974). The town itself was once an ancient capital of the Messapic Dodecapoli, with the archaeological park of the Messapic Walls still standing nearby.
