Aglianico del Vulture.
Take five minutes out to learn about the greatest “unknown wine” made in the whole of Italy.
Discover something of interest, something extraordinary and something worth seeking out for the cellar!
Almost all of the Italian wines that are highly acclaimed by the main wine critics hail from north of Rome: wines like Amarone, Barolo, Barbaresco, Brunello di Montalcino, Chianti Classico, and the Super-Tuscans, such as Redigaffi and Sassicaia. But one of Italy's greatest red wines comes from a region in Southern Italy which is practically unknown to the outside world......Basilicata, located in the arch of the boot.
The “very few” people who are in the know call Aglianico the Barolo of the South and I have been wanting this wine on our lists for several years...am I the happy bunny now.
Perhaps it’s because of the total lack of tourism, in fact; even most native Italians have never visited this remote region, this wine remains mostly undiscovered. And yet this fabulous grape variety called Aglianico del Vulture makes it’s totally natural home on the hillsides of mountainous Basilicata, especially around Mount Vulture, a long extinct volcano. Those more informed wine lovers who have heard of Aglianico usually know it as the variety that makes Taurasi, Campania's most famous red wine. But Basilicata is Aglianico's true Italian home. It originated in Greece (and was then known as Hellenica), as did most grape varieties in southern Italy and was introduced in what is now Basilicata around the 7th century B.C., a long time before Rome even existed, it shortly after made its way to Campania. All of this time means that the vines have had close to 3,000 years to become adapted to their terrior and they have done so superbly. During Roman times, writers and poets of the time hailed Falernum as one of the best and most celebrated red wines made in the whole of the known World, this wine was made from Aglianico del Vulture.
Basilicata traditionally has been one of Italy's poorest regions. It is almost entirely mountainous and even though in the Deep South suffers very cold winters, with few good roads. Until 1971 when it was awarded its first and only DOC (Aglianico del Vulture) most of Basilicata's wine was shipped out and bottled in neighbouring Puglia, as Pugliese wine. As Burton Anderson reports in his epic, The Wine Atlas of Italy, …Aglianico from the volcanic heights of Monte Vulture was more often than not the best of the wines they [Puglia] bottled as their own.'
Mount Vulture is in northwest Basilicata. The eastern slopes of Vulture, around the towns of Rionero, Barile, and Melfi, are the sites of the best Aglianico vineyards. The soil, composed largely of deposits from the ancient lava flows, is rich in potassium and tufa, the porous calcium carbonate stone that is ideal for grape growing. The late-ripening Aglianico variety thrives in this soil and climate. These wines are harvested as one of the latest in the whole of Italy due to the cooler growing season at around 2000 feet altitude, normally the harvest starts towards the end of October or even into November.
Aglianico as both a grape and wine in many ways resembles Nebbiolo, the variety that produces Barolo and Barbaresco in Piedmont, but Aglianico predates Nebbiolo by more than 1000 years. Not only are both late-ripening, and capable of growing successfully only in very limited areas, but both are also tannic, acidic varieties which typically can require many years before their wines are approachable and mature enough to enjoy. Also, although the colour of Aglianico is deep purple to almost blue in youth, both Aglianico and Nebbiolo-based wines turn garnet in colour with maturity sometimes attracting orange highlights. If anything, Barolo and Barbaresco are even more firm in flavour than Aglianico wines, and require longer aging. Aglianico del Vulture, for example, can often be enjoyed four to eight years after the vintage; many traditionally-made Barolos require ten to fifteen years of maturing, sometimes longer.
The best Aglianico wines have a very distinctive bouquet with strong berry, leather and chocolate overtones and a dry, well structured body with nice tannins which become velvety with age and developing plenty of complex layering and nuances. Perhaps the best news of all is the comparison of Aglianico del Vulture with Barolo and Barbaresco in that most Aglianico’s are about half the price and less.
Elena Fucci has for the past 5-6 years been the leading producer of Aglianico del Vulture. Over the past six vintages Elena Fucci has taken the top award from one of the two most respected Italian wine guides which includes 4 Tre Bicchieri awards. These prodigious wines offer exceptional buys for the quality in bottle and can be a serious wine to cellar for two decades or more, or you can just pull the cork a few hours earlier and enjoy with dinner. This may be difficult to believe, but I think she is the Angelo Gaja of the South, so you really should not miss out on these.
The vineyards of Salvador Fucci and his daughter Elena who is the fourth generation of the family to make wine on this estate is situated on the Titolo lava channel at 650 metres, 2200 feet above sea level, the soil is volcanic lava mix known locally as Pozzolana, there are 14 hectares planted to vines, the harvest comes in during the last week of October with hand picking then destemmed and crushed in small batches, fermented in stainless steel, then transferred to 100% New French oak for malolactic fermentation, followed by 12 months aging in barrel, it is then bottled and aged a further year before release.
2006 Titolo | Elena Fucci | Aglicanico del Vulture DOC
The 2006 wine is glorious, big on the nose and even bigger on the palate; it begins with aromas of violets, ripe sweet berry fruit, dark cherries, sweet tobacco leaf, volcanic soil and liquorice all in the roaring perfume. The mouthfeel has massive intensity, all power with strong velvety tannins which caress the palate, lovely harmony here and it is just beginning to mellow out after two years in bottle, this is a wine with a great future, and should continue to evolve for several years yet and drink well for more than two decades.
2007 Titolo | Elena Fucci | Aglicanico del Vulture DOC
The 2007 Titolo displays totally awesome potential, inky blue/purple, the explosive nose of raspberry, cherry and blackberry fruit complicated by violets, leather, tobacco, rosemary, lava rock, cinnamon and tar, the palate is fully dense, with sumptuous flavours, powerful velvety tannins grip the mouth, but beneath the tannins lay an exceptional wine which is long, complex and deeply concentrated, and yet it never comes across as being heavy. This is a fresh, vibrant and powerful wine with decades of glorious life ahead of it. I get the distinct impression that this will be recognised as the new benchmark on Aglianico, we will see sometime in the future, but I purchased double the quantity of the 2007 vintage as opposed to the 2006 which was already awarded 93 points (the highest ever for Aglianico del Vulture) on Robert Parkers website. This 2007 vintage also took the Tre Bicchieri, with three red glasses and a plus making it one of the top 30 wines of Italy, I personally think this is awesome juice, and should drink superbly well from 2011 through 2035 and longer.