Caleo Primitivo & Salice Salentino

One nice aspect of having our son visit, is that he likes a good glass of red wine almost as much as his father does.  So with each dinner, we've been polishing off a bottle between the three of us.  As I blogged much earlier this year (link here), Caleo makes good quality wines at reasonable prices.   Along with the Salice Salentino, they make a wonderful Primitivo that has paired deliciously with meat & cheese heavy salads, pork tender loins, steaks, and other family meals.  Bright on the pallet without being over-whelming.  Currant and cherry notes without being too fruity.  Good quality table wine for less than $8 a bottle (from Total Wine, who've opened a new store in Goodyear, 1/2 the distance from the Arrowhead Store we used to go to).

Southern Italy wine makers are producing some excellent, under-appreciated wines, in and around Puglia.    I think that Puglia wines are some of the "best kept secrets" of Italian wine making.  When I was approached by a Total Wine salesman in Goodyear, and told him I was looking for more of Puglia selections he responded "The Beaujolais are over here...". I cut him off: "I am not interested in an adolescent fruity Beaujolais from central France. I have enough of that at home. I said 'Puglia', as in Italian for 'heel', the South East end of the boot. Arrowhead has a larger selection than the Goodyear store."  The salesman retorted that "we have the same selection, unless they carry discontinued lines" - hmmm, so I better buy up everything at Arrowhead the next time I am up there, before the last of their stock is depleted.