Thick garnet, bloody maroon at the core. A nose ridiculously rich with leather, cassis, red dirt and conifer. It smells like top-notch mountain cab from Napa Valley. Diamond. Spring. Howell. Veeder. I fully realize how dividing that statement will be: half of you will be all Wow, that smells really good–while the rest will be like, How DARE you belittle this wine by comparing it to Napa Cab! Think what you want, I’m just telling you it reminds me of really REALLY good, hillside Napa Cab with a bit of age on it. Which I think is pretty spectacular for an Aglianico from quite a bit east of where most of the famous Aglianico originates. In fact, I’d never even heard of this winery, and not sure I’ve ever had this variety from Puglia. I picked it off a restaurant list for three things: AGE (everything else was 2017 or 2018), PRICE (it was the most expensive thing in the Apulia list), and VARIETY (Oh how I love Aglianico!). That and I didn’t want to drink any of the popular name-brand Brunello, Chianti, Amarone or Super Tuscan’s. OK, that four things.
Decanted heavily, and the green, tight briar of the early tarry entry gradually blossomed into patina’d things of grandeur. Bits of tertiary popping up here and there, but fruit a tight ball of freshness and concentration. Dark, rich, sizzling black cherry, slathered thickly on gobs of earth, saline granularity and blood-orange minerality. DECADES to go in terms of ageability. Just a crazy-crazy gorgeous wine, and I’m going to have to educate myself a little better on these bottles. And with that said, I just learned this is an Antinori thing.
2013 TORMARESCA ‘Bocca di Lupo’ Aglianico Castel del Monte DOC Puglia 15.0
Stephen McConnell 