Winemaker Notes
Serpico is ruby red with a complex bouquet of cherry jam, sweet spices, licorice, coffee and cacao. Incredibly balanced and structured, it has a spicy minerality and a long, pleasant finish of toast and spice.
Excellent with red meats, the finest poultry, game and aged cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2012 Serpico comes from 100-year-old vines and spent 18 months in new French oak. It has a deep, rich, layered bouquet of mulled red and black fruits, toasted bread, dried herbs, and cured meats. This rich, round, full-bodied effort has plenty of ripe tannins, a rounded, evolved texture, beautiful balance, and a great finish.
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James Suckling
A red with chocolate, spices and hints of oak on the nose and palate. Medium to full body, chewy tannins and a flavorful finish. Always a big yet structured and agile red. Try it in 2018.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2012 Irpinia Aglianico Serpico comes from pre-phylloxera vines and the wine is aged in both new and neutral oak. Serpico represents Feudi di San Gregorio's best fruit and the wine philosophy is modern and rich, stylistically speaking. Dark prune, blackberry, spice, licorice, tar, tobacco and balsam herb contribute to the complex bouquet. The mouthfeel is richly textured and velvety. This wine needs a few more years before the fruit reaches full focus.
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Wine Enthusiast
Forest floor, leather, tilled soil, ripe berry and balsam are some of the aromas you'll find in this delicious red. The smooth, dense palate delivers blackberry jam, espresso, licorice and ground pepper flavors, blanketed with soft, silky tannins. Tobacco and graphite notes linger on the finish. Drink through 2020.
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Wine Spectator
Dense tannins are swathed in a tightly woven cloth of crushed black currant, tarry mineral, dried thyme and licorice snap flavors in this rich, full-bodied red. Long and focused, with a lasting, aromatic finish. Aglianico. Best from 2019 through 2029.
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.