Tasting notes
APPELLATION
Taurasi DOCG
VARIETY
100% Aglianico
VINEYARDS AND SOIL
Mirabella Eclano, with a South-West exposure and a deep and sandy and well drained soil, and Montemarano with a South-East exposure and a clay soil. The altitude is on average of 400 metres above sea level. The training system is the espalier with cordon spur pruning system and the density of plantation is on average of 4,000 vines/hectare (about 1,600 vines/acre), until 6,000 (2400 vines/acre) with an yield of about 5,000 kg/ha (4,460 lbs/acre) and 1.3 kg/vine (2.87 lbs/vine).
AGE OF THE VINEYARD
On average 20 years.
HARVEST PERIOD AND TYPOLOGY
End of October, beginning of November, manual harvest.
VINIFICATION AND REFINING
Vinification with long maceration on the skins at controlled temperature in stainless steel tanks. Refines for 24 months in French oak barriques and Slavonian casks and at least 24 months in the bottle before release.
BOUQUET
Full, complex and intense, with notes of cherry, violet, wild berries and a distinctive spicy aroma.
TASTE
Fascinating and elegant, with flavours of plum, black cherry, strawberry and intense spices.
FOOD PAIRINGS
Mature cheeses, truffles, porcini mushrooms, ragu and dishes with slow cooked sauces, roasted red meats and spiced dishes.
AGEING POTENTIAL
50 years and more.
SERVING TEMPERATURE
18°C
“…profoundly elegant and savoury…”
“Even though they’re in the hot south in Campania, the vineyards that produce this aglianico in Taurasi are 400 to 600 metres above sea level and the grapes don’t ripen until November. As a result, the wine has lots of ripe liquorice-black, sunlight-soaked fruit, but is also profoundly elegant and savoury, with sooty, mouth-coating tannin and amazing earthy length. It’s easy to see why Piero Mastroberardino predicts it will live for 50 years or more in the cellar.”
Max Allen, Australian Financial Review, October 2018
“One of his wines changed my life.” – Max Allen
“Italian winemaker Antonio Mastroberardino died last month, aged 86. One of his wines changed my life. It was back in the late 1990s. The wine was a single vineyard red called Radici, made from the aglianico grape grown in the Taurasi region of Campania, in southern Italy. I’d never come across the grape or the region or the producer before, but the wine completely blew me away. It was incredibly complex, profoundly tannic yet refined and balanced. Easily the equal to any of the well-known classic reds I’d tasted up to that point – and believe me, I’d tried a fair few classic burgundies and bordeaux. I had to know more. So I looked into aglianico and Mastroberardino. And I discovered that Antonio had been instrumental in preserving the heritage of this and other ancient Campanian grapes when many other southern Italian growers were planting more famous international varieties such as cabernet. (…).”
Max Allen, ‘Journey begins with first bottle’, The Australian, February 2014
“Susan Hulme MW profiles the best areas and producers of one Italy’s oldest grapes.”
“Aglianico is one of the world’s great grape varieties. It is certainly one of Italy’s three top-quality red grapes, along with Nebbiolo and Sangiovese. If Barolo and Barbaresco, Brunello and Chianti are northern and central Italy’s vinous odes to greatness, then the Aglianico of Taurasi is certainly Italy’s southern counterpart. (…). Mastroberardino is historically the most important Taurasi producer, with a family history going back to the mid-1800s – for many years it was the lone defender and champion of Aglianico. ‘Its origins are very ancient,’ explains Piero Mastroberardino, who believes that the introduction of Aglianico to Campania can be traced back to ancient Greek settlements in the south of Italy, in around the 6th or 7th century BC. (…).”
Susan Hulme MW, Decanter, January 2018
