Winemaker Notes
Pair this wine with grilled ribeye steaks, duxelles, Chateaubriands, or farsumagru.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A tangy and fresh Terra di Lavoro with some clove and spice character. Hot stone and ripe fruit here. This is very tight and chewy. Fresh and bright fruit. Full body, firm and silky tannins and a racy finish. The almond, earth and stone undertones are fascinating. This needs two to three years of bottle age. Try in 2018.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Terra di Lavoro shows pretty tertiary definition with lots of licorice, smoke, tar and resin. The primary fruit has faded to the background, leaving behind a very direct and linear style with integrated tannins and a long, glossy texture. The wine's color now has a bit of brick at the rim, and the quality of the aromas has evolved and softened with time. Given the pace of the wine's evolution, I am shortening the drinking window by just a couple of years since the last time I tasted this wine in 2017. Some 30,000 bottles were made.
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Wine Spectator
A sculpted red, with sleek tannins framing the fresh profile of crushed black currant, smoky mineral, dried fig, graphite and spice box. Dense and finely balanced, this should show well with at least a few years in the cellar. Aglianico and Piedrosso. Best from 2019 through 2026. 2,750 cases made.
The family-owned estate that is Galardi is unlike any other. Established in 1991, they produce just one wine, with near perfection, and are located in an ideal location with volcanic, sloping soils in the northwestern part of the Campania region of Italy. The influence of the Mediterranean Ocean’s breezes combined with the unique soil composition make the native grape varieties of Aglianico and Piedirosso a nearly instinctual process. Although the soils create unique flavors in the wine, they make for extremely low yields and only a couple thousand bottles of Galardi’s flagship, Terra di Lavoro, are bottled annually making the quality and price skyrocket.
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.
Inhabiting the arch of Italy’s boot, this southern, mountainous region has a relatively small amount of vineyard area under vine. Basilicata has one DOCG for its prized red grape, Aglianico, Aglianico del Vulture Superior, which is limited to the slopes of an extinct volcano. The best whites are made of Malvasia bianca.