Winemaker Notes
An excellent wine for drinking with the finest roasted red meats and poultry, braised in Aglianico.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2011 Taurasi is all Aglianico and could be thought of as the Barbaresco of the south! It offers a smoking bouquet of ripe currants, melted licorice, asphalt, and truffle in a ripe, opulent, sexy style that's already hard to resist. From a low yielding, hot growing season, drink this pleasure-bent beauty over the coming 5-7 years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 Taurasi is a surprise hit that defies the stereotypes of the vintage. The 2011 summer was a very hot one with dry winds from Africa. But this wine from the heart of Taurasi shows a great sense of fullness and ripeness that is never heavy or flat. The wine appears elegant and well integrated with ripe fruit tones of blackberry and Morello cherry that are contrasted against oak spice, tar, crushed mineral and balsam herb. The mouthfeel is supple and rich. You can feel the heat of the year, but it adds positively to the overall softness of the wine.
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Wine Enthusiast
Dark berry, Asian spice and blue flower aromas slowly unfold on this structured red. The full-bodied, tightly wound palate offers up mature black cherry, blackberry, licorice, cinnamon and tobacco while youthfully assertive but refined tannins provide support. Drink 2018–2028.
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Wine Spectator
A finely knit, creamy red, with sculpted tannins and a tar-tinged layer of minerality, featuring juicy sun-dried black cherry, dried mint, graphite and abundant spice notes that echo on the finish. Drink now through 2026.
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.