Salvatore Molettieri Taurasi Vigna Cinque Querce 2008
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Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Intense ruby red color. Intense and complex nose, with spicy black pepper and nutmeg notes and elegant balsamic nuances that blend with ripe plum, licorice and coffee notes. In the mouth this wine is warm, fat, opulent, but also extremely fresh and sapid, with tightly knit tannins. A long finish of ripe fruit.
A wine of great character to be matched with game and with great seasoned cheese.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
A finely honed red, with dense, sculpted tannins and a rich, smoky undertow. Flavors of black raspberry pâte de fruit, crème de cassis, grilled herb, beefsteak and ground black pepper are tightly knit now, but should open nicely with some air or age. Best from 2017 through 2030.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Elegant and toned, the 2008 Taurasi Vigna Cinque Querce is a true gentleman among the unruly group of personalities that make up the Taurasi appellation. This is a standout expression that delivers an enormous sense of balance that is difficult to achieve with a grape that puts so much emphasis on tannins and structure. You get firmness at the back, but Cinque Querce is also supple and smooth in texture. The wine shows great length and purity. If you love Aglianico, don't miss this wine.
Other Vintages
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Making its home in the mountainous southern Italy, Aglianico is a bold red variety that is late to ripen and often spends until November on the vine. It thrives in Campania as the exclusive variety in the age-worthy red wine called Taurasi. Aglianico also has great success in the volcanic soils of Basilicata where it makes the robust, Aglianico del Vulture. Somm Secret—The name “Aglianico” bears striking resemblance to Ellenico, the Italian word for "Greek," but no evidence shows it has Greek ancestry. However, it first appeared in Italy around an ancient Greek colony located in present-day Avellino, Campania.
A winemaking renaissance is underfoot in Campania as more and more small, artisan and family-run wineries redefine their style with vineyard improvements and cellar upgrades. The region boasts a cool Mediterranean climate with extreme coastal, as well as high elevation mountain terroirs. It is cooler than one might expect in Campania; the region usually sees some of the last harvest dates in Italy.
Just south of Mount Vesuvio, the volcanic and sandy soils create aromatic and fresh reds based on Piedirosso and whites, made from Coda di Volpe and Falanghina. Both reds and whites go by the name, Lacryma Christi, meaning the "tears of Christ." South of Mount Vesuvio, along the Amalfi Coast, the white varieties of Falanghina and Biancolella make fresh, flirty, mineral-driven whites, and the red Piedirosso and Sciasinoso vines, which cling to steeply terraced coastlines, make snappy and ripe red wines.
Farther inland, as hills become mountains, the limestone soil of Irpinia supports the whites Fiano di Avellino, Falanghina and Greco di Tufo as well as the most-respected red of the south, Aglianico. Here the best and most age-worthy examples come from Taurasi.
Farther north and inland near the city of Benevento, the Taburno region also produces Aglianico of note—called Aglianico del Taburno—on alluvial soils. While not boasting the same heft as Taurasi, these are also reliable components of any cellar.