Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This vintage really embodies the message and style that this great Campania Merlot aims to achieve. It stays true to the fruit and the wild/untamed personality of the territory that shaped it. The 2013 Pàtrimo is one of those wines that flaunts its confidence and greatness despite its recent release date. The fruit is very young and plump, but there is enough of it to carry the wine over the next decade or two. Since the 2009 vintage, Pàtrimo has moved increasingly towards a higher percentage of neutral oak and that change becomes very obvious in this vintage. The freshness and purity of the fruit is the wine's driving force. Dark cherry, raspberry and dark plum lead the charge. Wait a few years before popping this cork. This is an enormously encouraging and inspiring vintage of Pàtrimo.
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James Suckling
A firm and silky red with berries, chocolate and hints of spices. Full to medium body, caressing tannins and a bright finish. Very polished and pretty now. Give it a few years to soften.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2013 Patrimo is 100% Merlot that spent 18 months in French oak, with close to a year in bottle before release. It offers a ripe, chocolatey, sexy style with loads of currants, truffle, toasty oak, and earthy aromatics. With Medium to full-bodied richness, a light, elegant texture and fine tannin, it lacks a touch of mid-palate depth, yet is nicely balanced and certainly an outstanding wine.
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Wine Enthusiast
Made entirely with Merlot, this elegantly structured wine has enticing aromas of cassis, purple flower, dark spice and Mediterranean scrub. The firm palate offers wild cherry, blackberry and licorice alongside polished tannins and bright acidity.
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Wine Spectator
An elegant, medium- to full-bodied red, with fine integration of the sculpted tannins, a deep note of tarry mineral, and flavors of pureed black cherry, star anise, dried marjoram and fragrant leather. Lingering finish. Merlot.
With generous fruit and supple tannins, Merlot is made in a range of styles from everyday-drinking to world-renowned and age-worthy. Merlot is the dominant variety in the wines from Bordeaux’s Right Bank regions of St. Emilion and Pomerol, where it is often blended with Cabernet Franc to spectacular result. Merlot also frequently shines on its own, particularly in California’s Napa Valley. Somm Secret—As much as Miles derided the variety in the 2004 film, Sideways, his prized 1961 Château Cheval Blanc is actually a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc.
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.