Quintodecimo Terra d’Eclano Aglianico 2023
£54.95
The wine
Complex aromas of ripe berries, plum, liquorice and coffee. The palate is rich, with soft, silky tannins and a long, elegant finish marked by freshness, balsamic notes and delicate spice.
The Aglianico comes from five estate vineyards at Mirabella Eclano planted in 2001 between 420 and 460 metres, facing south-east, south-west and north-west, on a mix of clay and volcanic soils. Fruit is sorted before and after destemming, fermented on skins for twenty to twenty-five days, then aged twelve months in oak, a third of it new, and a further twelve months in bottle before release. Aglianico is the great late-ripening red of southern Italy, picked here well into the autumn.
The producer
Quintodecimo
View all Quintodecimo winesQuintodecimo is the estate of Professor Luigi Moio, one of the world leading academic authorities on oenology. Moio grew up in a winemaking family at Mondragone, north of Naples, and after his doctorate spent the early nineties in Burgundy researching the aromatics of Pinot Noir. He returned to be appointed Professor of Oenology at the University of Naples.
While teaching he also consulted for several of the best producers in Campania, but came to the conclusion that what he really wanted was to make his own wine, on his own terms and without compromise. In 2001 he and his wife Laura bought a property at Mirabella Eclano, in the mountainous heart of the Taurasi denomination at 460 metres.
The estate has grown to forty hectares, every parcel within ten miles of Mirabella Eclano, taking in vineyards at Taurasi, in the Tufo area and towards the village of Lapio. The vineyards are organically farmed on clay and volcanic soils, and they give Aglianico, Greco, Falanghina and Fiano of exceptional quality.
The name comes from the fifteenth Roman milestone on the Via Appia, which passed through this part of Irpinia. The wines carry literary and artistic names, from the medieval Exultet parchments to Van Gogh in Arles, and are made with a precision that reflects a career spent studying exactly why wine smells and tastes as it does.
