Winemaker Notes
Full, complex, intense bouquet of marasca, prune and berries, with spiced notes. Warm, elegant and persistent with a great structure.
A fine match to steak and game (deer, wild boar, etc.), truffle , pasta with full body sauces and cheese
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Now here’s a really exciting Aglianico. Full of life, it’s overflowing with sea urchin, oyster shell, hot stones, blackberries and steak tartare. As for the palate, it’s full in body, but very silky and sleek, tiptoeing with the grace of a ballerina through vibrant but concentrated dark fruit. Long and complex. Amazing value! Drink from 2023.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This is an energized and streamlined wine with the structure and acidity to pair with a pizza quattro formaggi. The Donnachiara 2017 Irpinia Aglianico shows linear and tight aromas of red berry and wild raspberry with rose hip, lavender and dried lilac. Overall, you'll notice a pretty combination of floral and fruity intensity, all backed by the slightly more austere tannic structure for which Aglianico is known.
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Wine Spectator
A smoky note up front underscores the baked cherry and dried fig fruit on the palate of this medium- to full-bodied red. Accents of cured tobacco and spice linger on the finish, firmed by well-knit tannins. Drink now through 2024.
Making its home in the mountainous southern Italy, Aglianico is a bold red variety that is late to ripen and often spends until November on the vine. It thrives in Campania as the exclusive variety in the age-worthy red wine called Taurasi. Aglianico also has great success in the volcanic soils of Basilicata where it makes the robust, Aglianico del Vulture. Somm Secret—The name “Aglianico” bears striking resemblance to Ellenico, the Italian word for "Greek," but no evidence shows it has Greek ancestry. However, it first appeared in Italy around an ancient Greek colony located in present-day Avellino, Campania.
A winemaking renaissance is underfoot in Campania as more and more small, artisan and family-run wineries redefine their style with vineyard improvements and cellar upgrades. The region boasts a cool Mediterranean climate with extreme coastal, as well as high elevation mountain terroirs. It is cooler than one might expect in Campania; the region usually sees some of the last harvest dates in Italy.
Just south of Mount Vesuvio, the volcanic and sandy soils create aromatic and fresh reds based on Piedirosso and whites, made from Coda di Volpe and Falanghina. Both reds and whites go by the name, Lacryma Christi, meaning the "tears of Christ." South of Mount Vesuvio, along the Amalfi Coast, the white varieties of Falanghina and Biancolella make fresh, flirty, mineral-driven whites, and the red Piedirosso and Sciasinoso vines, which cling to steeply terraced coastlines, make snappy and ripe red wines.
Farther inland, as hills become mountains, the limestone soil of Irpinia supports the whites Fiano di Avellino, Falanghina and Greco di Tufo as well as the most-respected red of the south, Aglianico. Here the best and most age-worthy examples come from Taurasi.
Farther north and inland near the city of Benevento, the Taburno region also produces Aglianico of note—called Aglianico del Taburno—on alluvial soils. While not boasting the same heft as Taurasi, these are also reliable components of any cellar.