Thursday Virtual Happy Hour: Aglianico

Aglianico is a red wine grape now thought to be native to southern Italy. It produces full-bodied red wines that show musky berry flavors with firm tannins and good aging potential. Campania's Taurasi and Basilicata's Aglianico del Vulture are two of the best known appellations to use the variety.

In their youth, Aglianico wines tend to be very tannic and concentrated, especially if adverse weather conditions force producers to harvest their crop before it has achieved complete ripeness. A few years of aging has a favorable impact on the wine and helps the tannins to soften and the fruit profile to emerge.

The structure and richness of Aglianico make it a popular grape for blending in southern Italy. In Campania, it is frequently blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in the production of some IGT wines. Aglianico wines are typically garnet-red, fading to terracotta tones after sufficient time in bottle.

One of its prime expressions is in the Taurasi DOCG, where the grape forms the majority (if not, the entirety) of wines produced under the denomination, roughly 80km (50 miles) east of Naples. Aglianico del Taburno, also a DOCG, lies just to the north. Southeast of Taurasi, in Basilicata, the sole DOC wine in the region, Aglianico del Vulture, is produced from Aglianico grapes grown on the volcanic slopes of Monte Vulture. The grape is also found in scattered locations across most of southern Italy from Molise to Sicily.

## We have a choice of videos to watch including:

1. https://youtu.be/Z_DU2IdLpBg?si=ziUA-NCcPtEgGf8G - Italy Aglianico and Wines of Campania - Wine with Jimmy (19:01)
2. https://youtu.be/9Qb209NgvfI?si=-E1wV5WDYN8P3mp_ - General Overview of Aglianico - James TheWineGuy (3:51)
3. https://youtu.be/67R_4JarAyc?si=O90TocGOCyJWm8K1 - Barolo Of The South: Taurasi vs Aglianico del Vulture - Dr. Mathew Horkey (10:39)

So, pick up a bottle and watch a couple of videos. Let us know what you’re drinking and eating, and, if possible, the region from which your wine comes. Do you have any comments (positive or negative) about the videos? And, as always, tell us what’s going on in your life - what's happening with you, how you're feeling about things, updates, successes, challenges - as much or as little as you’re willing to disclose. We are in this together. And - thank goodness - we have wine!

Cheers!!