Winter was sunny with moderate rain in January and February. The temperature was never too cold. There was some late and rapid snow though, in two occasions. I started pruning in March, when the temperature was nearly colder than February and there was some serious rain. April showed the same amount of rain but more concentrated in few days. The rest of the month was very sunny. Bud Break started around the 15th of April, which is ideal for Aglianico at 530 meters above the sea level. May was ideal too for avoiding primary mildew infections, never too hot but with a lot of sunlight and only few days of rain. June was also very sunny, with a perfect blossoming, but never too hot or dry. July started that way but then we had one first a big rain episode, and then hail the 25th, just after I was done de-compacting some of the bunches. After that, there was again a big amount of rain concentrated in two days. Hence, I decided to take away every berry dried or damaged from the hail, so I went with several people to select berry by berry, bunch after bunch, in all the vineyards. This maniacal process is what I call “schiccatura”, from “chicco” which is “berry”. In August there was some rain too and one could see the canopy vegetation growing more than the previous year. The summer was in the end hot but never too hot. Veraison started one week later than usual and lasted until the end of September, where we had another unusually huge amount of rain, though not missing sun. October had less rain and showed sunlight nearly every day. This was crucial. I harvested the 16 of November, happy to have incredibly small and ripe grapes, before a big amount of rain came the day after.
In 2020 grapes came from 4 vineyards: one is today 52 years old, another one 47 years old, the third is now 22 years old and the last one was planted before Phylloxera came here in 1931. The vineyards lies at an altitude of around 530 meters above the sea level, facing south to south-west (only one vineyard face pure east with 40% slope), in an area which benefits from a considerable ventilation and never misses rain; geologically speaking they are 5 million years old and present remains of molluscs and deposits that document the fact that it was once a submerged beach. This soil is unique and very complex, it combines the calcareous clay matrix, rich in stones, with the volcanic components that came from ancient eruptions. Sometimes also tuffaceous in the surface layer, some other times marly.
The vineyards are cultivated without digging or ploughing into the soil that is left grassy (no till), and without cutting the tops of the vines, that are manually rolled along the cables, to favour the maximum phenolic ripeness. I avoid fertilisation and do not use any systemic products. To further preserve the health of the plants, I use copper and sulphur (mostly in liquid form) together with seaweed extract and herbs, fungi and sometimes propolis.
The vines were all harvested on November 16th – 2020.
The crop was about 8 hl per hectare and the wine has 13,5% alcohol.
The grapes were destemmed and then inspected berry by berry over the sorting table by six people. After that, I put them whole berry in untoasted wooden vat and in ceramic amphoras where they had a spontaneous fermentation, not adding any sulphide or pied de cuve.
Several pumping over and punching down were made, each day, together with one delestage. Alcoholic fermentation lasted about 24 days. Maceration lasted from 60 to 75 days, depending on the vat.
Spontaneous malolactic happened immediately after the fermentation: this is the only time that happened in 6 vintages (from 2019 to 2024). Then the racked whole berries went through a sort of late crushing on a vertical hydraulic press with zero pressure, I called it a “pigiatura tardiva”, since actually I do not want pressed wine.
After few months of lees contact, and before mid-summer, I moved the wine with gravity in the lower part of the underground cellar in a 30 hl no toasted barrel. The wine had only one rack before then bottling without any filtration in the third week of September 2023.
There are 3934 bottles and 58 magnums.
As demonstrated by recent (2021) genetic studies of ten of the most renowned Universities and Research Centers in Italy, the Aglianico has a unique genetic identity, distant from any other varietal or family of grapes. The Aglianico is one of very few varieties at the genetic root of the extraordinary ampelographic diversity in Italy, that has the richest variety of vines in the world. One sixth Italian vines are from the Campania region. Therefore, the Aglianico is a vine rooted in the history of viticulture.
Aglianico requires a very late harvest, kind of unique for a dry wine. No-sweet, no-overripe grapes: in the Irpinia it can occur in November and without Botrytis, making Taurasi DOCG the lastest appellation to be harvested and produced in Italy.
(in latin Hirpinia, from “hirpus”= “wolf” a word coming in the pre-estruscan population language)
Is a sub region of Campania. Irpinia is a territory that occupies around 2,800 Km², two thirds of which are covered by mountains and the other third by hills. The DOCG Taurasi belongs only to Irpinia, with 1135 ha (only 447 specifically claimed), 40% of which are in a specific area called Alta Valle del Calore, where altitude is from 400 to 700 meters above sea level. Here, where I made my estate, the Aglianico has probably the longest vegetative cycle among all the wine varietals, from bud break in April to the harvest in November.