2012 Taurasi, Poliphemo, Luigi Tecce, Campania, Italy

2012 Taurasi, Poliphemo, Luigi Tecce, Campania, Italy

Product: 20128029115
 
2012 Taurasi, Poliphemo, Luigi Tecce, Campania, Italy

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Description

A giant of a wine, and aptly named, this mythical Taurasi was hand-made in tiny quantities by Luigi Tecce from his tiny five-hectare family estate in the village of Paternopoli, above the Calore river that shapes the Taurasi zone, at an altitude of 550 metres.

The 2012 is particularly impressive thanks to the hot Scirocco that blew, naturally concentrating the berries; the harvest taking place a bit earlier, between 7th October and 3rd November. The skins were thicker than normal, allowing Luigi to extend the maceration to an eye-watering 60 days. Despite the evident “matter”, Luigi has captured the pacey, redcurrant energy of the wine; it’s rich with full berries, wellstructured but alive with an almost raspberry essence to allow a long development in bottle.
Drink 2020-2030.

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Critics reviews

Wine Advocate88/100
The Luigi Tecce 2012 Taurasi Poliphemo is a dark and inky red wine with some rusticity and slightly pungent edges. Despite those loose ends, the wine is more or less centered and it does play the intensity card with unique confidence. After all that brooding dark fruit and plum, you get spice, black tar and saddle leather. In the mouth, the wine is surprisingly soft and yielding.
Monica Larner - 31/08/2017 Read more

About this WINE

Luigi Tecce, Campania

Luigi Tecce, Campania

Luigi Tecce's 4ha wine estate is located 550 metres high among Campania's Irpinian hills on the border of the Castelfanci & Paternopoli villages on calcareous rocky soils overlain with a smattering of volcanic dust. The area is famous for producing fine wines from the Aglianico grape that is then vinified as Taurasi DOCG.
Similar terrain indeed to that of Serralunga d'Alba, Piedmont, giving wines that are richly intense but also with a scintillating structure for longer ageing.

Since 1997 Luigi's been bottling the fruit from his oldest, 80 year old vines (trees!) from Paternopoli as the damsen fruited Taurasi DOCG, while nearby younger Castelfranci vines provide the juice for his earlier drinking, racy raspberry fruited Campitaursini DOC.

Vinification takes places without intervention in large open chestnut vats for Taurasi & stainless-steel for Campitaurasini; invecchiamento/ageing in large Gamba slavonian botte for 24 months. Since 2009 he's been playing with amphora.  Production is limited and no pesticides are used either in the vine or cantina, so giving an authentic artisanal expression of Campanian Aglianico.

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Taurasi

Taurasi

Campania’s volcanic soils yield wines of impressive elegance and personality, as demonstrated by an array of compelling indigenous varieties. 

The DOCG wine appellation of Taurasi is located in the region of Irpinia within Campania, which is also home to the prestigious DOCGs; Fiano di Avellino, Greco di Tufo and the Irpinia DOC. 

Taurasi is the stronghold of the Aglianico grape, which thrives on vineyards at higher altitudes. The DOCG regulations stipulate that Taurasi wines must be aged a minimum of 3 years prior to release with at least 1 year maturing in wood.  Riserva wines require at least 4 years ageing. The wine blend consists primarily of Aglianico, complemented with up to 15% of Barbera, the little-known but very promising Piedirosso and Sangiovese.

Taurasi is considered as the most ageworthy, complex and structured expression of Aglianico wines.

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Aglianico

Aglianico

Aglianico's origins are Greek (the name is a dialect version of the word Ellenico, the Italian word for Hellenic) and its was originally planted in the Campania and Basilicata regions of southern Italy over 2,500 years ago when southern Italy was a Greek colony known as Magna Graecia or Oenotria.

The grapes thrived until the late 19th century when it was almost destroyed by phylloxera. Since the war plantings have gradually increased and there were about 13,000 ha/32,000 acres of Aglianico planted at the last official count, in 1990.

The grape seems to prefer soils of volcanic origin, as well as dry and sunny location, and achieves its finest results in the two DOCs of Taurasi in Campania and Aglianico del Vulture in Basilicata. It is an early budding, late ripening variety and in the right hands can produce very long-lived wines of intensity and finesse. In the past young Aglianico wines were often fiercely tannic and harsh - fortunately improved techniques in both the vineyard and winery have led to fresher and riper wine being made that are eminently approachable in youth but also still improve with bottle age.

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