Winemaker Notes
100% Aglianico di Taurasi.
Intense bouquet of wild fruits underscored by vanilla and spice notes.
Full-bodied and balanced, with supple tannins and dark fruit flavors.
Well-matched with red meat entrées, fish steaks and hearty casseroles.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This vineyard-designate Taurasi Riserva is probably one of the biggest, boldest wines produced in Italy. It opens with an inky black color and intense aromas of black fruit, toast, spice, espresso bean and bitter black chocolate. The jackhammer tannins are steady and firm, and there's a long trail of prune and black fruit on the finish. Cellar Selection.
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Wine Spectator
This powerful red remains graceful, with bright acidity driving the ripe kirsch, macerated blackberry, vanilla, wild herb and licorice notes. Silky tannins frame all of this, but the fruit and spice notes linger on the long finish. Drink now through 2020. 1,000 cases made.
Italian Red Wine
While picturesque hillsides, endless coastlines and a favorable climate serve to unify the grape-growing culture of this country. The apparent never-ending world of indigenous grape varieties gives Italy an unexampled charm and allure for its red wines. From the steep inclines of the Alps to the sprawling, warm, coastal plains of the south, red grape varieties thrive throughout.
The kings of Italy, wines like Barolo and Barbaresco (made of Nebbiolo), and Chianti and Brunello di Montalcino (made of Sangiovese), as well as Amarone (mostly Corvina), play center stage for the most lauded, collected and cellar-worthy reds. Less popular but entirely deserving of as much praise are the wines made from Aglianico, Sagrantino and Nerello Mascalese.
For those accustomed to drinking New World reds, the south is the place to start. Grapes like Negroamaro or Primitvo from Puglia and Nero d’Avola from Sicily make soft, ammicable, full-bodied, fruit-dominant wines. Curious palates should be on the lookout for Cannonau (Grenache), Lagrein, Teroldego, Ruché, Freisa, Cesanese, Schiopettino, Rossese and Gaglioppo to name a few.