Elena Fucci Aglianico del Vulture Titolo 2016
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Dark and intense ruby red with an ample and complex nose yielding ethereal spices, cherry, blackberry preserves, rosemary, tobacco and cinnamon with light hints of vanilla. Dry on the palate and full bodied with firm tannins and a long finish. Although a young wine when released, it is destined for a great future!
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Elena Fucci's 2016 Aglianico del Vulture Titolo is a wine built for the long haul. It should continue its steady evolution over the next 20 years if not more. Stitched together with enormous precision, the wine offers balanced intensity and a beautiful level of fruit purity that speaks both to the Aglianico grape and the extreme territory that shapes it. This vintage finishes on a dry note with fine texture and elegantly integrated tannins. The wine is aged in barrique for 12 months, of which half is new oak with various levels of toast. The vines range from 50 to 70 years old and are planted up to 650 meters above sea level.
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Wine Enthusiast
A delightful mix of crushed rock, red berries, pink peppercorn and violet drive the nose. There’s polish to the palate, where coiled red-berry fruit is propelled along an immensely tangy river of crushed stones. It’s a stripped back expression of the variety that shows elegance and power in tandem. Drink through 2030.
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Decanter
Taking over the winemaking from her father, Salvatore, whose vineyards are at 650m on the slopes of volcanic Mount Vulture, Elena Fucci has made an expressive, elegant Aglianico, whose fresh aromas of rosemary and thyme lead to a lively, textured cherry-fruited palate reminiscent of fine Barbera, the sinewy texture gently polished by French oak and etched with vivid volcanic acidity.
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The Fucci family has lived on their estate in Basilicata since 1960, when Elena’s grandfather bought six hectares of vineyards at the highest part Contrada Solagna of Titolo, at the foot of Mount Vulture (an extinct volcano). Her grandfather and father tended the vines and sold the harvest as bulk grapes, only vinifying a small portion for personal consumption.
It wasn’t until the 2000 vintage that the full potential of the domain’s 70-year-old Aglianico vines was properly explored. The family was going through the process of selling the estate when Elena made the last-minute decision to take on the property herself, with the intention of developing the vineyard and devoting herself to the land that she grew up loving so dearly. 2000 was the first proper vintage at Elena Fucci, harvested and vinified while Elena was still completing her studies in Viticulture and Enology.
She knew from the beginning that they wanted to devote themselves to producing a singular wine, reflective of their unique terroir. Simply walking through the vineyard rows at Elena Fucci is a fascinating history lesson; the terrain is volcanic, the soil is mineral, dark in color, and pozzolanic, which clearly catalogues in its layers the history and life of the Vulture volcano, visible just a few hundred meters away. The eruptive phases composed of lava flows, lapilli and ash, interspersed with periods of stasis, composed of layers of clay, are all visible in the land, which translates to a fascinating wine in the glass.
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.
Inhabiting the arch of Italy’s boot, this southern, mountainous region has a relatively small amount of vineyard area under vine. Basilicata has one DOCG for its prized red grape, Aglianico, Aglianico del Vulture Superior, which is limited to the slopes of an extinct volcano. The best whites are made of Malvasia bianca.