NV Prima Materia Aglianico, Kelsey Bench, Lake County
Divvy-Up
80 Points
Tasting Notes
This is a seriously structured and concentrated multi-vintage blend that's based in dark chocolate, black pepper and pomegranate flavors and coated in firm, fine-grained tannins.
Wine Enthusiast
Our biggest, boldest red wine. Black fruits with black cherry, dark plums, licorice, baking spice, graphite, cassis, and a touch of roasted herbs. Medium acidity and grippy signature tannins are definitley present, but in refined, crafted form. Good minerality. Like a mountainside Cabernet Sauvignon, but more Italianate.
Winemaking: Hand harvested. Native fermentation in bins, gentle hand punchdowns after a cold harvest and roughly 4-5-day soak. Just a bit of whole cluster as Aglianico doesn’t seem to like very much for us. Bins fermented to different peak temperatures. 16-20 days fermenting then wood-basket pressed at dryness. No sulfur added for one year, no racking until bottling 30 months later (average).
Vineyard: Grown at 1450 feet elevation. Taurasi Clones VCR 2 (virused with red blotch, tight bunches, larger berries, acidity plus earth, beautifully rustic) and 7 (fruit, spice, small open clusters, more “modern”) planted in 2003 on bilateral north/south cordon utilizing “California sprawl” trellising and St. George rootstock. Approximately 7% Montepulciano interplanted. Nearly dry farmed. No pesticides or herbicides.
Vintages: A study in contrasts. 2017 for us had double “normal” rain fall, and a rollercoaster of heat spikes and cool days, yielding acid-driven, spicy wines of lower alcohol. 2018 was back to sustained heat, and less than ¼ of the rainfall the prior vintage enjoyed, yielding a broad palate, lower acidity and deeper color and fruit tones. 2018 also had abnormally elegant fine-grained tannins, with Fall perhaps mirroring its homeland in the volcanic Campanian mountains.
Why non-vintage? We had 6 weeks of fire in Lake County during 2018, and blending vintages insured that any smoke level would be totally undetectable.
Comments
Aglianico - Metamorphosis In A Bottle
Like a Jekl and Hyde character, Aglianico is two wines in one grape skin. It can be a muscular bruiser when young, becoming a refined and pensive gentleman with age. It is a metamorphosis in the bottle. One of Italy’s 3 great varietals that makes its home in Campania, south of Naples. It’s bold, dark fruit is balanced with earth and mineral.
Prima Materia Winemaker, Pietro Buttittia, tells his story of Aglianico
It is hard to figure out where to start when talking about Aglianico. It is probably one of this world’s ten most noble grapes. There is little doubt that it is at least 2,000 years old, and possibly much older. It has amazingly agile stomatal closure skills, meaning that it is reacts protectively to heat by slowing its respiration, and can take hot and challenging conditions in stride. This has lead Cabernet specialists like Dan Petroski of Larkmead to proclaim that it may be on of Napa Valley’s best hopes in a warmer future. The wines are both large and elegant simultaneously, they age very, very well, and do not require oak in the way that Bordeaux and Burgundy do. But, you gotta love tannin to get on the Aglianico train.
When we planted ours in 2001, it was on the advice of a few key people in the industry ranging from the grapevine nursery to Darrel Corti in Sacramento. I hadn’t taken the wine leap yet and had only seen a bottle of Aglianico once or twice. But I am glad that a few thoughtful souls pointed out that it liked rocks, altitude, heat, and made savory reds with good color and great aging potential. This was a veritable collection of magical words, and Aglianico was something that I was happy to grow into.
There were some early experiments. The 2006 was undrinkably (and unsellably) tannic. There was a 100-day maceration experiment that was a total failure, as well as a vintage that was clumsily over-oaked, destroying all of that ethereal Aglianico-ness. What I learned was to be gentle, so I move the grapes completely by hand now, that picking time is incredibly important for acid-tannin tension, and to let the vintage (or vintages) show through rather than trying to “do things” to it. You can’t just add things to a deficient Aglianico, and all of this has been something of a zen study in letting go.
Hi there Divvy-Uppers!
Got the email last week letting me know a wine was on the way and it arrived Wednesday. Perfect, since it gives the wine a day or so to sit before opening it to sample.
My interest was piqued when I saw that inside the box there was a bottle of Aglianico from Lake County. I've had some truly excellent Aglianicos from its home in southern Italy, and recently tried a 2015 Harrington Aglianico from Tuolumne County (which for those of you who don't know it, is north of Yosemite National Park).
Curiously, the bottle didn't show a vintage, and a trip to the Prima Materia website revealed why - this is a blend of 2017 and 2018 vintages, in unspecified ratio. Knowing that Aglianico can be a bruiser when young I decided to open this Friday night and follow it over a few days to see what happened.
In short, your patience will (likely) be rewarded.
Day 1. We opened this up and I poured a glass fairly early to try to figure out what sort of Aglianico we were in for. The pretty floral nose was a good sign, but that quickly went away as the wine shut down into a tannic beast for most of the evening. I kept getting hints of plum, dark cherry, etc alongside some earthy and herbal notes, but over about 3 hours this mostly just showed tannin, and the tannin picked up intensity over the first couple hours, as is common for a tannic wine. All good. That's how this grape is when young. I didn't try any forced aeration, either with a Vinturi or splash decant or Mollydooker Shake, figuring instead it would be most informative to see how this changed over the coming days.
While it wasn't going to be an awesome pairing, we ended up making some ravioli with pesto and shrimp. The pairing went better than expected with the acid and tannin nicely cutting through the oil of the pesto. I also tend to find that light to medium reds work really well with pesto - much better than whites. Left about half the bottle corked up on the counter.
Day 2. Much the same as day 1, much to my surprise. It came out of its shell now and again, but remained fairly closed down on the whole. The tannins, though, did get noticeably more resolved from the air. Good signs. So good, in fact, that I gave the remaining third of the bottle a big Mollydooker Shake to help it get on its way for the next day. Once again, recorked on the counter until the next day.
Day 3 (tonight). Here we go. This is finally getting to where I'd expect it to go! Tannins are still present and dominant, but they've now resolved enough to let more of the flavours shine through on the palate. More plum, some cherry, some dried herbs, some earth, and some minerality even came out. The wine's energy is finally showing through! I wanted to save some for a day 4 or 5, so this didn't get sampled with food, but its brightness and acidity ensure that it will remain a good pairing with many different foods.
Overall, $40 SRP is a bit much for this, imo, but the Divvy-Up price is very fair at the 3-pack level and quite a deal at the case level. For my tastes, I'd let this sit in my cellar for at least 5 years before popping one, but if you want to drink it sooner then either (a) enjoy the tannin, (b) open it up 12 hours before you want to drink it, or (c) prepare yourself to run it through a Vinturi or other aerator probably 4 or 5 times.
As always, thanks to Alice and the crew at WCC/D-U for enlisting me to the cause! I'll report back if the last sample or two yields any further insights.
I will preface this review by candidly admitting I am no wine expert; instead, I might consider myself an amateur wine enthusiast (with a very hefty dose of enthusiasm!).
Now, I received this wine last week and let it sit and settle for about 48 hours before eagerly popping open this bottle. I knew I wanted to approach this wine at two different points in time--first right upon opening and then once more after giving the wine a couple of hours to breathe and open up.
Immediately out of the bottle, my first observation was the color of this wine--it took on a deep dark cherry hue, with a brighter cranberry around the edge of the glass. Next, I was eager to explore the aromas. I was greeted with a sharp, peppery nose at first sniff. As I approached the glass with subsequent inhales, I picked up a bit more complexity, but my (inexperienced) nose had a bit of a hard time getting past the strong, peppery first impression. Finally (!) I was ready for that first sip. I initially picked up on the prominent acidity of this wine, noticing the wine open up slightly towards the back of the throat. The mouthfeel was surprisingly light to me, but these initial sips revealed the prominent tannins present in the wine. More generally, the flavor profile for me leaned more mineral, peppery, and a bit earthy. The hints of fruit I got were more tart--along the lines of cranberry or dark cherry. I do want to note that I drank this wine on its own, without food, but it was begging for food in my opinion. As a solo wine, I think I would rate this as a 3.5/5 personally, but I am almost certain I would've enjoyed it more paired with mature cheeses or something salty to balance out the acidity.
I did state above that I came back to this wine after leaving it to open up over a couple of hours--and boy am I glad I did! Although I still was tasting this wine on its own, time really gave this wine the opportunity to round out a bit. All of the tasting notes I described above had the chance to mellow out a bit. The nose was a bit softer--definitely still peppery, but not as sharp as my initial approach immediately out of the bottle. Most importantly, however, I noticed the flavor profile was able to open up and the complexity of this wine became more apparent. During this second taste, in addition to my initial earthy and peppery notes above, I was able to pick up some smokiness and tobacco. Personally, I found this wine to be much more elegant after having time to breathe, and would suggest giving it as much time as you can! I think next time around, I would experiment with force aerating this wine before drinking and would love to hear about the experiences from other tasters who decide to aerate beforehand. All in all, this was a truly fun wine to explore and I look forward to seeing how others experienced this wine.
Thanks for the comments and info everyone. Yes Aglianico is definitely a food wine, as are many Italian wines, but if you are familiar with Barolo, Sagrantino, or some Chiantis, then it should be right in your wheelhouse. If sweet fruit and oak are your thang, then it probably isn't for you.
For the sake of additional context here is the actual 92-point review for the wine from Wine Enthusiast:
"Superconcentrated black-fruit flavors and a firm, grippy texture combine for a powerful expression of this Italian grape variety. Blackberries and boysenberries practically explode on the palate, while good, moderate tannins nicely balance out their fruitiness."
And our 2014 vintage:
"Winemaker Pietro Buttita loves to tackle unusual grape varieties and he did a great job with this one. The wine is beautifully concentrated and focused, practically bursting at the seams with black-cherry and blackberry flavors that are extremely ripe and potent. It's so intense that the fruit notes cling to the tongue and sides of the mouth, echoing on the finish." - 92 points
And if you are interested in an Aglianico deep dive, here is a tasting and class I cohosted with the last vintage, which was more austere, being tasted:
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9jODQ5ODkwL3BvZGNhc3QvcnNz/episode/M2QyYmNjNzMtN2RjZi00NjZiLTkxNDctMDFmNTk3ODZlMDVl?hl=en&ved=2ahUKEwij88CZg-vzAhUUvp4KHRxLD70QjrkEegQIAxAF&ep=6
Hi all...nobody has any questions? Happy to answer, or at leat attempt to!