Winemaker Notes
Ruby red color with garnet reflections. The nose is pronounced and complex with notes of cherry, wild berries, spicy scents of violet and tobacco with a mineral accent. In the mouth it is elegant, smooth, velvety and intense with characteristic hints of plums, black cherries, black pepper and tar; full-bodied and austere with balanced tannins and acidity.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Deep, brooding ripeness full of smoky, sweet blackberries, dried fruit, black mushrooms, black chocolate, ash and black sesame. Full-bodied and very structured on the palate with dusty, vertical tannins and a long, ashy finish. Drink or keep holding.
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Wine Spectator
A robust red, with hints of date, fig cake and cocoa powder accenting dried cherry and cranberry fruit. Boasts balsamico acidity that makes for a lively tang throughout the rich profile, with firm, chalky tannins on a finish marked by leather, mineral and spices. Drink now through 2035. 2,000 cases made, 640 cases imported.
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Wine Enthusiast
The nose is warm and spicy at first, with coffee grounds and black pepper and even a hint of chili, before wild herbs join, with fennel at the front. Black cherries, figs and raspberries open the palate, and close-grained tannins hold everything in balance.
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.