Winemaker Notes
Ruby red in color, the Ippolito 1845 Cirò Classico Superiore Riserva Colli del Mancuso boasts an elegant bouquet of wild cherry and plums with subtle notes of spices and vanilla. The flavor is full, smooth, and delicately tannic.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Ippolito 1845 2021 Cirò Rosso Classico Superiore Riserva Colli del Mancuso is 100% Gaglioppo. This red wine showcases a very pretty bouquet with sweet cherry, wild raspberry and blue flower. There are fresh primary elements that remind me of Sangiovese from the Tuscan Coast. However, the darker side of the wine, with grilled herb aromas, speak to beautiful Calabria. The wine reveals a taut, lean-bodied close.
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Vinous
Dusty and floral, the 2021 Cirò Riserva Colli del Mancuso opens with a blend of dried violets, blackberries and cedar shavings. This is creamy in texture yet not weighty in feel. A wave of ripe black fruits swirls across a tactile core of minerality, slowly saturating toward the close. The 2021 finishes incredibly long and staining, leaving a coating of fine-grained tannins to create a slightly chewy sensation as nuances of sour cherry fade. Rating: 91+
Gaglioppo likes warm and dry climates and elevation. Some of the better examples of Gaglioppo grow in Ciro, Calabria where high altitude protects the berries from the intense hot climate of the plains. It makes a dry, red wine expressive of wild berry, black plum, earth and violets. Somm Secret—If you like the reds of Mt. Etna in Sicily, you will like Gaglioppo. It is in fact a sibling of Mt. Etna’s Nerello Mascalese grape.
As the toe of Italy’s boot and closer in proximity to Sicily than any other mainland Italian region, Calabria holds much much in common with the island by way of climate, landscape and agriculture. Calabria’s principal red grape, Gaglioppo, is also a close relative of Sicily’s famous Nerello Mascalese.
Cirò, Calabria’s most valuable appellation, covers gently sloped hills on the Ionian Sea coast. Its wines are based on the indigenous red, Gaglioppo, and can be made as single varietal wines or blended with Cabernet or Merlot. Also of interest from Calabria is the red Maglioppo, likely a relative of Sangiovese. Whites here are made of Greco.