Winemaker Notes
Pair this wine with roasted meats, Espagnole sauces, veal saltimbocca, and gyros.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Aromas of perfumed berry, violet, leather, pipe tobacco and baking spice take shape in the glass. The smooth, structured palate delivers layers of ripe black cherry, juicy raspberry, clove, white pepper and mineral alongside firm, fine-grained tannins.
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.