Aglianico

Aglianico is the great red grape of southern Italy and is frequently called the Barolo of the south — a comparison that captures its high acidity, formidable tannin and long ageing curve, if not its flavour.

The name was long assumed to derive from Hellenic, indicating a Greek origin with the colonists of Magna Graecia, though that etymology is now doubted and a Spanish derivation has been proposed.

It ripens extremely late, often into November, and needs both heat and altitude. Its two great homes provide exactly that. Taurasi, in the hills of Irpinia inland from Naples, sits at 400 to 700 metres on clay and volcanic soil. Aglianico del Vulture, in Basilicata, grows on the slopes of an extinct volcano at up to 800 metres.

The wine is deeply coloured, with black cherry, plum and blackberry over a savoury register of tar, leather, tobacco, dried herbs and a distinct smoky, volcanic minerality. Acidity is very high and tannins are firm and sometimes austere in youth.

It needs time. Taurasi is legally required to age for three years before release and is often unapproachable for a decade, after which it develops the truffle, dried fruit and forest-floor complexity that justifies the wait.

It is also used for rosato, which is unusually structured, and for a small amount of sparkling wine in Basilicata.

Outside Italy it is planted in small quantities in Australia and California.

Its tannin and acidity together make it one of the few Italian reds that genuinely requires age rather than merely benefiting from it. Taurasi at five years is usually closed and severe; at fifteen it opens into dried fruit, truffle and tobacco. Producers increasingly release a younger, softer Irpinia Aglianico alongside it for immediate drinking.

The two great zones are different enough to be worth distinguishing. Taurasi, on clay and limestone in Campania, gives slightly rounder, more earthbound wines. Vulture, on the volcanic slopes in Basilicata, gives a smokier, more mineral and more aromatic style.

The grape ripens so late — often November, sometimes after the first frost — that it is effectively restricted to southern Italy, and even there only to sites with enough altitude to give the cold nights it needs to hold acidity.