WHEN AND WHERE THE PRIMITIVO WAS BORN
The cultivation of the grapevine and production of wine in the territory of Gioia del Colle were already very active between the VIII and the III century B.C..
This is proved by several findings of vascular material (destined to contain wine) in the archaeological area of Mount Sannace, an ancient Peucetian centre just a few kilometers away from Gioia del Colle.
Some archeological finds can be admired in the archaeological museum located in the Norman-Swabian Castle by Frederic II of Swabia in Gioia del Colle.
But it is at the end of the XVIII century that the primicerius priest Filippo Francesco Indellicati selected a vine, characterised by an early ripening, that he called "PRIMATIVO" and that he planted in Liponti, in the Terzi area, Gioia del Colle.
Exactly in such area, the Plantamura family owns a vineyard raised according to the old tradition of the sapling.
The main feature of the "primitivo" vine type is that it sprouts with considerable delay compared to other vines and achieves its own vegetative cycle in a relatively short period of time.
Such features explain the fast spreading of the Primitivo in the whole hilly area called "Murgia", including 15 towns, where humidity on the one hand and the spring temperature on the other hand, contribute to originate frequent frosts, that would damage the grapevines with an early sprouting.
The Primitivo name was indeed attributed to the grapevine because of its early ripening – occurring between the end of August and the beginning of September.
Such peculiarity avoids the damages resulting from frequent hoarfrosts and autumn rains.
In the honour of the Primitivo and its selector, Father Francesco Indellicati, in May 2004, Gioia del Colle Town Council erected a monument where Father Francesco planted the first Primitivo vineyard.
It is a monolith, in which have been engraved some verses of a poet from Gioia del Colle, professor Nunzia Bianco Sala, hymning to the Primitivo.
Father Francesco Indellicati
after having selected
what it was right
for the so-called ‘red lands’
in the Liponti area
he quickly decided
and fixed that eighty ares
had to be cultivated
to produce the superior wine:
it was said “Primitivo”
he called it “Primativo”
that early it seemed to him.