D’Angelo Aglianico del Vulture Riserva "Caselle" 2016

Alcohol: 13.5%

Grape(s): 100% Aglianico del Vulture 

Localisation: Basilicata, Italy

Tasting Notes: Ruby ​​red with garnet hints and an intense and fresh, persistent bouquet of ripe cherry. Robust, harmonious, and with tannins that improve as the wine matures. This is a very enjoyable Aglianico right from the beginning, however, if you find a bottle in your cellar after a few years, be ready for even more wonderful surprises. Caselle is a benchmark for all great red wines of Southern Italy.

Notes: First kept in concrete tanks for two years, Caselle is then left to rest in large barrels for another two years. Finally, the bottling and another year of aging. 

Food Pairing: It goes very well with all meat courses and flavourful or not-too-sophisticated dishes.

The Domain: The history of Aglianico is lost in the mists of time, therefore, its origins are very difficult to determine. It appears to have been introduced by the Greeks in their Southern Italian colonies around 800 or 700 BC. Among the most commonly mentioned historical evidence is the discovery of a Roman wine press in Rionero in Vulture, as well as an ancient bronze coin found in the Venosa area, depicting Dionysus (Bacchus in the Roman transposition), a Greek god. As for literary citations, possibly none deserves a mention more than the famous odes to wine written by Roman poet Horace, a native of Venosa. The origin of the name is quite uncertain, if not even mysterious. For many years, people believed that the term Aglianico came from ancient Greek – confirming its ancient Greek etymology – and that the original word was “crippled” during the Aragonese domination to become Aglianico. According to another theory – introduced by Manuela Piancastelli – the term Aglianico derives from the Greek word “agleukinosicos” or “wine without sugar/glucose.”