ES is Gianfranco Fino's celebrated Primitivo from Manduria in Puglia. The small estate's focused approach combines selected fruit, gentle concentration on the vine and patient maturation. This magnum offers a generous format for exploring a powerful southern Italian red, where richness is matched by careful winemaking and a substantial frame. The 2019 ES received Tre Bicchieri in the 2022 Gambero Rosso guide.
- Aromas: Ripe dark fruit and dried-fruit suggestions, with spice and oak-derived detail adding complexity to the wine's concentrated Primitivo character.
- Palate: Broad and powerful, with dense fruit, warmth and supporting tannins. It is a wine to enjoy in measured pours, allowing its layers to unfold alongside substantial food.
- Style: A full-bodied, concentrated Primitivo with a rich texture and an oak-matured finish; suited to slow dinners rather than casual thirst-quenching.
- Winemaking: Hand-selected grapes undergo fermentation in steel, followed by around nine months in a mix of new and used French oak and further bottle ageing, during maturation.
- Cellaring: Drink now if well stored, with potential for further development in bottle. If ageing further, store in a cool and dark location. Before opening stand upright to settle sediment, and taste before choosing gentle decanting or further aeration.
- Food Pairing: Braised lamb, slow-cooked beef, roasted mushrooms or mature hard cheese; choose rich savoury dishes that can meet its powerful body.
A magnum of ES makes a memorable centrepiece for a wine-loving table. Give it a generous meal and time in the glass, then enjoy Primitivo in a particularly ambitious form. A thoughtful choice when the bottle is part of the occasion. Serve slightly cool, taste before deciding on decanting, and give the wine time to develop in the glass.
Gianfranco Fino
Gianfranco Fino is much admired as a cult winery. Gianfranco and Simona Fino began their wine adventure in 2004 with a small vineyard of bush-trained Primitivo in Puglia. From that modest starting point, they developed a highly individual estate focused on preserving old vines and producing wines with a strong territorial identity. Gianfranco describes himself as a craftsman of the vines, a fitting expression for a project built around exacting vineyard work. Primitivo is the principal grape, while Negroamaro provides another important voice in the collection.
The estate is best known for ES, its concentrated, expressive Primitivo di Manduria, which helped establish a reputation for ambitious southern Italian reds. JO explores Negroamaro, giving wine lovers a complementary view of Puglia’s character. The recognition is substantial and repeated: successive ES vintages have received Gambero Rosso’s Tre Bicchieri, alongside top ratings in other Italian guides. ES 2019, for example, earned Tre Bicchieri in the 2022 edition. For drinkers seeking depth, intensity and a distinctive producer story, Gianfranco Fino brings old-vine heritage together with an unusually focused personal vision.
