Winemaker Notes
Opaque ruby in color with garnet reflections, Don Luigi is a richly aromatic wine with layered notes of ripe wild berries, prunes, charcoal, cocoa, and licorice. On the palate, well-balanced tannins and a full-bodied mouthfeel make for an unforgettable wine experience. Pair this wine with baked pasta dishes, salami sauces, farsumagru, and mint-herb-crusted lamb shank.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Di Majo Norante's top-shelf red is the 2014 Molise Rosso Riserva Don Luigi. This is a pure expression of Montepulciano that has been aged in new barrique for 18 months. Some 35,000 bottles were made. Despite the challenges of the vintage, this wine puts its best foot forward. It offers rich density and concentration with a full load of black fruit nuances, spice and tobacco. This full-weight red should perform very nicely over the next 10 years.
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James Suckling
Plenty of ripe and spicy fruit character. Some figs, too. Full body, velvety tannins and a juicy finish. A big and rich wine with slightly cooked fruit character, but fun to drink.
Montepulciano is the second most planted red variety in Italy after Sangiovese, though it is achieves its highest potential in the region of Abruzzo. Consistently enticing and enjoyable, Montepulciano enjoys great popularity throughout central and southern Italy as well. A tiny bit grows with success in California, Argentina and Australia. Somm Secret—Montepulciano is also the name of a village in Tuscany where, confusingly, they don’t grow the Montepulciano grape at all! Sangiovese shines in yet another Tuscan village, here making the reputable wine called Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.
This mountainous region south of Abruzzo comes in second after Valle d’Aosta as Italy’s smallest and least populated region. Wine production is largely reserved for cooperatives with the main varieties as Montepulciano d’Abruzzo and Trebbiano d’Abruzzo. Plantings of grape varieties from its neighboring region of Campania—whites Fiano and Greco di tufo and the red, Aglianico—have increased recently.