Winemaker Notes
Deep ruby red. Full, complex and intense, with notes of cherry, violet, wild berries, and a distinctive spicy aroma. This elegant wine has flavors of plum, black cherry, strawberry and intense spices. Pair with mature cheeses, truffles, porcini mushrooms, Ragout and other dishes with long cooked sauces and roasted red meats.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This wine paints an authentic portrait of the Aglianico grape made according to family-honored traditions in the province of Avellino. The Mastroberardino 2016 Taurasi Radici reveals a unique combination of tart cherry fruit, savory smoke and campfire ash. You also get some candied orange peel, tilled earth and rusty nail. This vintage represents one of the most complete and balanced editions of the Taurasi Radici program that I have tasted in 20 years, and I look forward to tracking its bottle evolution. Rating: 94+
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Wine & Spirits
This is rich and layered, its dark berry flavors woven with notes of crunchy herbs, smoked meat and tobacco. Dense, schisty tannins keep the flavors taut as brisk acidity propels the wine to a balanced, iron-tinged finish.
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Wine Spectator
Fresh and minerally, this elegant, medium- to full-bodied version marries taut tannins in a fine, tense frame with well-meshed flavors of roasted fig, crushed black cherry, Earl Grey tea leaf and woodsy spice. Lightly floral on the racy finish. Best from 2022 through 2032.
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.