Winemaker Notes
#84 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2022
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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Vinous
The 2017 Taurasi Radici is a force to be reckoned with, as it bursts from the glass with masses of raspberries, currants and plums, complemented by an array of autumnal spices and crushed violets. Its textural depth and density is something to behold, silky, almost creamy, yet contrasted perfectly by a core of mineral-laced black fruits and brisk acids, as an air of inner rose and cloves forms toward the close. The 2017 is persistent and structured yet also unbelievably fresh, as fine tannins frame its smoky mineral tones, along with lasting hints of blackberry and olive. This is a gorgeous rendition of Radici that should provide readers with a slightly earlier drinking window than normally expected. That said, we are talking in terms of Taurasi here, and this wine has a very bright future ahead of it.
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James Suckling
Complex already on the nose with blue and black fruit, as well as notes of nori, goudrons and spices, such as cinnamon and mace. Full-bodied with intense, almost steely fruit and mineral flavors and firm, medium-grain tannins. The quality is evident here. It’s just a bit rough at the moment and needs a couple of years to calm down and expand in all directions. Try from 2023.
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Wine Spectator
Reveals ripe fruit and medicinal herbs on the nose that continue on the palate, with crushed black raspberry and cassis, Earl Grey tea leaf and hints of mocha and tar-tinged smoke. Fresh and well-knit, with chalky, sculpted tannins and a finish that echoes the fruit, herb and mineral character. Drink now through 2030.
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.