This variety was known before as “Zagarese”, but it was renamed by the priest “Primativo”, from the Latin “primativus”, which means “precocious”.
Francesco Filippo Indellicati contributed to spreading this varietal by planting cuttings in a hamlet near Gioia del Colle. From here, with the help of local growers, this clone further spread across Apulia, until it reached the town of Manduria, thanks to a wedding of a local noblewoman who brought some cuttings of Primitivo from her hometown as a gift to her husband. Here Primitivo found a perfect terroir that would enhance, or even improve, its organoleptic characteristics.

It is genetically identical to the Croatian Crljenak Kaštelanski and Tribidrag, which comes as no surprise considering Primitivo’s Dalmatian origins. In 1967 a plant pathologist from the USA travelled to Bari and was struck by the similarity in taste profile and plant morphology between Primitivo and Zinfandel, so he sent cuttings to the US for further investigation. The identity between the two grapes was confirmed later in 1994 by means of modern DNA profiling.
The confirmation that Zinfandel was Primitivo led to a revival of the latter, which in the 90s had fallen victim of a EU vine pull scheme. In 1999 the European Union granted Italian exporters the right to use the name Zinfandel on their labels, a decision, though, that led to a disagreement not yet settled with Californian producers, who saw this as an appropriation of their heritage. Despite this controversy (or thanks to?), Primitivo is enjoying a worldwide growing success due to its very international style and to the work of quality-minded producers who sacrifice yields and focus on low yield bush vines producing outstanding wines.