Hi James
In terms of what you’ve liked, there is plenty of it, so hopefully anything new merely adds onto the good stuff.
Aglianico certainly worth trying, and with age on if possible (for Taurasi). Plenty of regional variation though, so a grape that you can explore in a similar way to Nebbiolo in Langhe / Roero / Valtellina / Gattinara etc. I will strongly recommend Iand d’Agata’s tome on Italian grape varieties, but with a firm warning… he’s a very good writer and whilst he will damn as well as praise, he writes with a genuine enthusiasm for the underdog varieties, that it’s all too easy to share that excitement. If you want to explore, then that’s the book, with nothing to challenge it.
Other grapes / regions?
If you like Nebbiolo / Pinot Noir, then try Valle d’Aosta Fumin. Not a huge amount made, but a grape with clear nebbiolo family associations, but which I think also hints as being somewhere between the two grapes. Les Cretes is a safe place to start.
Vino nobile for a leaner / firmer take on Sangiovese, but also try the better producers of Emilia-Romagna. Drei Dona / Umberto Cesari are favourites on quality terms alone, but San Patrignano (as well as being fine value) are worth supporting for the incredible work they do, being a privately run drug rehabilitation organisation, giving people technical and life skills to make a better go of it second time round.
Perhaps worth trying the northeast Trentino / Alto Adige, but some of the native grapes can be a little bitter and overly large co-ops can be a limiting factor. No such problem with Elisabetta Foradori’s teroldego based wines, but they are a somewhat isolated oasis in the region.
Plenty more. My dvice is to buy that book, then in a year or two you can return to this thread and complain about how you’re now poorer (but happier)
It doesn’t have to be. Soil and winemaking. The Italian ones tend to be out-of-whack tannic, but that’s what those sites give when ignorantly made. Many also show greatness from their sites, despite being rustic wines.
However, to my understanding, resin was only used to seal the amphorae airtight. Coating the amphorae with resin sounds weird, since to my understanding, resin is dissolved into wine. Coating the amphorae with beeswax sounds more sensible, because it really doesn’t flavor the wine nor is it dissolved into wine.
The amphorae that have been found have shown various coatings on their interiors. Resin and other substances were used to seal them, but also to coat them because unglazed pottery is not really waterproof. There’s a lot of research into what the amphorae were used for and it seems that they were re-used if they were not broken because sometimes you find traces of both wine and oils, otherwise they’d just be broken up and scattered in the streets.
You’re right that the wine I mentioned was only Coan wine. But I did remember Pliny and he did spend several volumes writing about wine. They did cut it with seawater because remember, sometimes they reduced the must to a strong concentrate, and their wine probably sucked. Anyway, here’s a great article if anyone is interested. Off topic regarding Aglianico though!
The principal substances employed as conditurae were, 1. sea-water; 2. turpentine, either pure, or in the form of pitch (pix), tar (pix liquida), or resin (resina). 3. Lime, in the form of gypsum, burnt marble, or calcined shells. 4. Inspissated must. 5. Aromatic herbs, spices, and gums; and these were used either singly, or cooked up into a great variety of complicated confections.
We have already seen that it was customary to line the interior of both the dolia and the amphorae with a coating of pitch; but besides this it was common to add this substance, or resin, in powder, to the must during the fermentation, from a conviction that it not only rendered the wine more full-bodied, but also communicated an agreeable bouquet, together with a certain degree of raciness or piquancy (Plin. H. N. XIV.25; Plutarch, Symp. V.3). Wine of this sort, however, when new (novitium resinatum) was accounted unwholesome and apt to induce headach and giddiness. From this circumstance it was denominated crapula, and was itself found to be serviceable in checking the fermentation of the must when too violent.
I recently made a new Aglianico discovery that I am pretty excited about: Stefania Barbot’s 2015 Taurasi Fren (at $50). Her lower-end 2016 Irpinia Campi Taurasini Ion ($28) is gorgeous too, and you can’t beat that price. I scored those two wines 95 and 93+ points respectively. In fact, the relatively unknown Taurasi Fren was one of my highest scoring wines from Campania (in my report published last week).
The report I mention above points extra domains to discover (you might know them) :
Luigi Tecce (Irpinia et Taurasi)
Volpara (Falerno del Massico)
Pietracupa (Taurasi)
Nanni Copé (Sabbie di Sopra)
Musto Carmelitano (Aglianico del Vulture).
Thanks soooo much for this article. It is fascinating and so obscure. Never knew where the term “must” came from (mustum, meaning fresh in latin).
This is the kind of uber geeky information that gives pleasure. My favorite series of lines included this on winemaking…
“The process was carried on in large caldrons of lead (vasa defrutaria), iron or bronze being supposed to communicate a disagreeable flavour, over a slow fire of chips, on a night when there was no moon”
I am sure that lead carried a sweet taste into the wine. Of course if you are a biodynamic Roman, they would attribute it to doing it on a night with no moon. Root day, flower day, and lead day. Cheers!
I am not surprised by your experience. In my experience the south of Italy has taken longer to recover from the plague of ripeness, new wood, and non-native varieties that infected many Italian regions in the '90s. But there are exceptions, and when grown in the right place and treated properly I think Aglianico is surely one of Italy’s most interesting varieties. Don’t give up!
At the risk of sounding like a shill, I know that Lonardo and Perillo are genuine, traditionally styled wines because I import both of them. All Aglianico, no new wood, long macerations. If you try one of them please tell me what you think.
The Lonardo Irpinia Aglianico is all from Taurasi, vinified so as to be drinkable earlier than their Taurasi (still big wine, though).
I have some experience with the producers above though it is not a lot.
I brought a Cantine Lonardo wine to a Frank M Basanti diner last you I think you were at. I think their wines are fantastic though I have had any on the lower end. I’m going to get some of that $20 wine from WineX and give it a go.
The Galardi wines are notable for getting some huge WA scores from Galloni. They are beasts.
The Terredora Dipaolo wines have turned up recently for nice prices. They seem to be examples of older school wine making. Including the things we don’t necessarily romanticize when we say that. I’m looking forward to exploring them more broadly.
The one Barbot wine I tried I was not thrilled with. While they didn’t seem to be pushing massive ripeness and oaky sweetness they certainly are into extraction. Maybe good with time. Maybe not. You won’t get great odds from me.
Galardi can be great when you get it at the right time, and is often best in the “weak” years because it is less dense and tannic. The '08 is terrific right now, and it was not considered a particularly good year.
For consistency I like Terredora di Paolo’s Taurasi’s (they make 3-4, I think, but the “Fatica Contadina” is, I believe their base-level and very good, typically at a great price of about $30-$33. I am still drinking the '01s and '04s and they are awesome…And they drink well out of the gate in most vintages.
The Mastroberardino Radici’s are great too, but the non-Riservas are a bit “international” (i.e. delicious, but somewhat Bordeaux-like and not as distinctly Aglianico) and the Riservas are great but need age.
To me, these are the most consistent producers. If I were going to recommend just one to try (for someone who hasn’t had them), I’d definitely point to Terradora di Paolo, but would avoid their overly-rustic entry-level “Aglianico” in favour of their Taurasi.
Chris, you mentioned that the Barbot “Ion” is available via Hi Times. You may have noticed that Monica Larner posted a very positive note on that wine earlier in this thread…maybe check that one out too! I’ve never seen this producer but am going to try to track down their higher-level Taurasi.
That’s one of those funny things in our world of wine. Dense, extractive wines yield higher ratings and command a higher price in the market. Don’t know if they bleed off, but they could easily press earlier, perhaps pick a little earlier and make those better, weaker wines more often or always. (Of course a winery can do both, with an earlier drinker and a serious ager.)
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