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.?
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This full-bodied, chewy red has aromas and flavors of wet earth, cedar, walnuts and poached plums. It’s meaty and dense, with slightly leathery but not hard tannins. Drink now or hold.
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Wine Spectator
Made with 100% Montepulciano, the Di Majo Norante 2020 Molise Rosso Riserva Don Luigi (in a heavy glass bottle) is approachable thanks to its aromas of ripe fruit, baked plum and sun-dried prune. The wine delivers richness and softness across the board, with tannins that are velvety and tame. It is quite ripe, however, with blackberry preserves, and I recommend a short-term drinking window as a result. This release of 30,000 bottles spends 24 months in tonneaux.
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.