Vespa house spotlight
Vittorio Brumotti rides the rows at Masseria Li Reni: Bruno Vespa's Manduria estate, Riccardo Cotarella in the cellar, and Raccontami named for the radio show Vespa hosted with his son.
The market on this bottle
Wine-Searcher tracks this vintage across the open market. Our slash sits well under their published low.
2018 Vespa Raccontami Primitivo di Manduria Puglia, Italy
Bruno Vespa's Manduria Primitivo, Cotarella in the cellar, eight years in bottle at ten dollars.
Raccontami is the Vespa family's first Primitivo di Manduria, shaped with Riccardo Cotarella. The 2018 is 100 percent Primitivo, 15 days on skins, malolactic in barrique, now $10.
Manduria Primitivo with eight years already done
Bruno Vespa bought Masseria Li Reni in 2014 and asked Riccardo Cotarella to start with this wine. Raccontami means tell me a story. The 2018 is dark fruit, spice, and a ten-dollar ask against a forty-three-dollar winery price.
The house
Bruno Vespa, with sons Alessandro and Federico, turned Masseria Li Reni into Vespa Vignaioli. Cotarella designed Raccontami as the first red.
The wine
100 percent Primitivo from clay at 90 meters. 15 days on skins, 20 percent saignee, malolactic in barrique. 15.5% ABV.
The glass
Black cherry, plum, blackberry, licorice, vanilla, tobacco, chocolate. Soft tannin, long finish. Eight years in bottle.
The table
Lamb or a pork chop. Serve near 60 F. A short air if you want. This is a meat bottle at a white-wine price.
Black cherry, licorice, and a velvet line
The house writes spice and berries, a strong character with a velvety impact. The 2018 in the glass is dark ruby, then plum, fig, blackberry, cherry, tobacco, sandalwood, and chocolate. Soft tannins, a long finish, 15.5% alcohol that still drinks warm rather than hot.
A ripe Puglia year that gave Primitivo the dark fruit this bottle still holds. Eight years on, the oak has settled into vanilla, tobacco, and chocolate rather than raw wood.
Black cherry, plum, blackberry, fig, licorice, vanilla, tobacco, chocolate.
Full, velvety tannin, 15.5% ABV, 15 days on skins, French barrique.
Long, warm, spiced. Serve near 60 F. A short air if you want.
Fifteen days on skins, then barrique
Cotarella's first Vespa red is not a brochure. Clay at 90 meters, 15-to-20-year vines, 15 days of maceration with pump-overs, 20 percent saignee, malolactic in barrique. The 2018 still reads that plan.
Riccardo Cotarella, president of Assoenologi, designed Raccontami as the family's first Manduria Primitivo. The later vintages moved toward old alberello and 12 months in Nevers and Troncais. The 2018 is the earlier cordon-trained, clay-grown bottle that started the story.
Serve near 60 F. A Bordeaux glass. Lamb or a chop. Eight years have already done the waiting.
A journalist who bought the masseria
Vespa spent decades writing about wine. Then he planted himself in Manduria.
Bruno Vespa learned wine from Luigi Veronelli, then spent a career telling other people's cellar stories on Italian television. In 2014, at seventy, he bought Masseria Li Reni in Manduria and brought his sons into the vines.
The name Raccontami comes from a Friday-morning radio hour he hosted with Federico. Cotarella put Primitivo in the glass so the family had a red that could carry a meat course and still talk.
The 2018 is that first chapter, eight years on: Manduria clay, spice, berry, a velvet tannin, ten dollars against a forty-three-dollar winery price.
Lamb on the bone, pork in the pan
Primitivo spice and warm fruit want rosemary, garlic, and a chop with fat. Not a delicate plate.
Two plates. One rack of lamb. One pork chop with herb butter. Both can take the oak and the warm fruit.
Pull the cork 20 minutes ahead if you want. Serve near 60 F in a Bordeaux glass. Eight years have already softened the tannin.
Rosemary garlic rack of lamb
Nagi's rosemary garlic marinade, roasted until the rib is pink. Fat, herb, and char meet blackberry and licorice.
Why it works: Rosemary and garlic echo the spice, while lamb fat softens the Primitivo's warm frame.
View Recipe for Rosemary Garlic Marinated Rack of Lamb (opens in a new tab)
Pan-seared pork chops
A deep-brown chop, juicy inside, with mashed potatoes to catch the pan juices and the wine's chocolate.
Why it works: Pork fat and a hard sear match the tobacco and toast notes without adding more tannin.
View Recipe for Perfect Pan-Seared Pork Chops (opens in a new tab)Put eight-year Manduria on the table tonight
Vespa. Cotarella. Primitivo. Ten dollars. The story is already in the bottle.
Take the 2018 Raccontami home while a Cotarella Manduria still costs ten dollars.
