Feudi di San Gregorio 2010 Rubrato

Wine Review: Feudi di San Gregorio 2010 Rubrato

Aglianico. Aglianico. Aglianico! I have a hard time keeping bottles of this wine on hand. Largely because I open it up as soon as I get a bottle, this is a far driving and vexatious wine. It gets all Mad-Max in the aromas: dusty old leather, gun powder, and charismatic darkness. The gritty tannins drive through an intense parade of black fruit, anise, tobacco, and hot stone on the tongue.  The finish moves toward spice and a final bullet of cherry. As you may have guessed by this description, this is an aggressive bottle of wine. Tame it with a porterhouse steak and use a decent set of wine glasses.

Wine Rating: 90 Points

Background

Feudi di San Gregorio is one of the top three wineries in the Italian province of  Campania. I recently reviewed a winery in neighboring Molise that hired Riccardo Cotarella as their consulting enologist.  That is the case here, too, and it shows in the bottle. These are exceptional wines.

The winery is located in the village of Sorbo Serpico in Irpina. Its top Aglianico is named “Serpico” after the town and nearby ancient vineyard. That is one of the finest examples of the grape, period. And this is one of the most awesome grapes you may not know about.

This bottle is Aglianico, too, but sourced from other villages in the area: Taurasi, Pietradefusi, Castelvetere, and Paternopoli. These villages are all in volcanic foothills, and the vineyards are at least 100o feet above sea level. The average age of vines is well over a decade old.