Taurasi

100% Piedirosso grown in volcanic soil. There is a generosity to the aromas on this wine, with black cherry and plum. The palate is smooth, with ripe tannins and layers of spicy complexity.
Katherine Dart, MW - Wine Buyer

Mastroberardino, long Campania’s most renowned winery, is the family firm that is universally acknowledged to have been the most important guardian of Campania’s vinous heritage. The winery has always been focused on honing the virtues of the region’s traditional grape varieties. Among other things, the winery has paid close attention to planting varieties on appropriate soils and to adopting winemaking methods that maximized the grapes’ varietal character, rather than techniques that buried it under oak and fruitiness.

Made with 100 percent Greco di Tufo, Mastroberardino may be best known for their rich and age-worthy Aglianicos, but this white is equally delicious. The nose hints of herbs, white peach and pear, while the palate is scented and well structured. A bright, clear freshness adds definition and length.

Distinctly damson in colour Michele’s 2003 Taurasi Riserva, of which only 600 cases were made, still retains its youth with compelling, compact aromas of black currant, damson, cracked black pepper & even sea salt accompanying the seasoned oak notes; the wine was aged for 20 months in French barriques followed by six years bottling ageing prior to release!

On the palate there’s the classic Aglianico roll of juicy blackberry/currant fruit flavours, bright cleansing acidity, fine linear tannins & black pepper crunch. No hint of heat or bother whatsoever. Impressive. Focussed yet keen to please, to be paired with a sizzling steak. Classy. Decant an hour before drinking but will keep. Drinking 2013 - 2021.
David Berry Green

This is a tightly focused yet generously ripe Aglianico that draws on ancient vines and lofty, limy Paternopoli terreno to give the wine a real verve. Despite its obvious charm this is a wine for the longer term.
David Berry Green, August 2011

How great to be able to offer you a 10-year-old Taurasi, that’s ready to drink but will grow further in bottle if required. From a classic vintage, aged for 20 months in barrique, yielding only 5,000 bottles, the nose is rich with blackcurrant, kirsch, intensity and crunch. With gorgeous liquorice fruit characters, this is emphatic, structured, yet mellowing, with autumn bramble fruit; the finish scintillating with red cassis acidity.
David Berry Green

The 2008 Taurasi Radici Riserva Antonio is a one-off wine made only this vintage to celebrate the incredible life and influence of Antonio Mastroberardino who passed away in January 2014. The wine is made only with fruit from the Montemarano vineyard and it ages in wood for 30 months (40% sees botte grande and 60% goes into barrique). This is a beautifully polished and sophisticated wine with a deep, dark color and an impressively silky quality to the tannins. The bouquet shows ethereal tones of dried earth, rose petal, tar, resin and cola. The 2008 vintage was especially successful terms of phenolic ripeness for color intensity and aromas. I went back to the wine an hour after tasting it and was delighted to see that it continued to evolve and open. This is an elegant wine dedicated to one of the most passionate advocates of Campania wine.
Monica Larner - The Wine Advocate, 30th April 2015

The Perillo family are fortunate to own old Aglianico vines in the Taurasi villages of Castelfanci and across the Calore valley at Montemarano, high up at 500 msl on compact sand, limestone and volcanic soils. Consequently the yields are painfully small (22 hl/ha) but the quality optimal. 2008 was a fine vintage, harvested in November, the Perillo’s wine aged for 18 months in both barriques and slavonian botte grande, giving a full bodied, rich, focussed brambly, damson fruit held taut by a crunchy structure that demands time before softening. Drinking 2016 - 2026.
David Berry Green