dal Vulcano Aglianico Del Vulture

When it comes to Italian wine the Aglianico grape (pronounced “olli-yawn-nee-ko“) is the king of the south!

Aglianico is one of Italy’s great red wine styles – it’s typically full bodied, savoury and rustic and has awesome cellaring potential. As Italian wine critic Ian d’Agata puts it – “Along with Nebbiolo and Sangiovese, [Aglianico] is generally believed to be on of Italy’s three best wine grapes, but in my opinion it is far more.”

Younger Aglianico wines have flavours of deep, dark black fruits and spicy white pepper and as they age you’ll get a more rustic, earthy style red that some wine nerds might describe as having characters of dried figs and sunbaked leather!

From vineyards with volcanic soils (aka the name dal Vulcano!) in Basilicata region where there are three production zones – Taurasi, Aglianico del Taburno and Aglianico del Vulture (where this is from) where typically you’ll find these full bodied reds with characters of plum, black berry, black pepper and espresso!

When it comes to pairing Aglianico with food it’s a big, full bodied red that is absolutely gagging to be served with a rich, fatty meats…and it especially does well with BBQ sauce as a bit of a heads up! Pair it with beef brisket, barbecued pork ribs, buffalo burgers, venison, sirloin steaks…you get the idea!