Ippolito 1845 Liber Pater Cirò Rosso Classico Superiore 2024
£13.75
The wine
A full-bodied, rich and velvety wine with complex aromas of wild berries, violet and spice, and a soft note of oak from barrique ageing. Gaglioppo is the great red grape of Calabria and this is a fine, unfussy introduction to it.
Gaglioppo is Calabria's great red grape, grown almost nowhere else and a direct descendant of the Greek plantings at Ciro. It gives pale colour with firm tannin and high acidity, closer in structure to Nebbiolo or Xinomavro than to anything southern. Classico Superiore denotes the historic heart of the zone and higher minimum alcohol.
The producer
Ippolito 1845
View all Ippolito 1845 winesIppolito 1845 is the oldest working winery in Calabria, founded in the year its name carries and now in the sixth generation of the same family. It sits at Ciro Marina on the Ionian coast, in the toe of Italy.
Ciro claims one of the longest continuous winemaking histories anywhere. The Greeks planted here in the eighth century BC when this was Magna Graecia, and the wine of Kremissa is said to have been given to victors at the ancient Olympic Games. Gaglioppo, the red grape of the appellation, is the direct descendant of those plantings and is grown almost nowhere else.
The estate also works Greco Bianco, Greco Nero and Pecorello, all Calabrian natives, and the family have done much to keep the last of these in cultivation. Calabria remains one of Italy's least known wine regions despite that history, which makes these among the better-value serious wines in the country.
