This year was our biggest tasting ever of wines from Southern Italy and Sardinia, and it wasn’t by chance. We were really interested in tasting more wines from these regions to better understand what the likes of Etna, Taurasi, Cerasuolo di Vittoria or Aglianico del Vulture have to offer. We rated almost 900 wines in total this summer from the South.
JamesSuckling.com rated around 900 wines during our summer Italian tastings in 2018. Campania was one of the few regions that excelled both for white and red wines.
One of the big surprises of the tasting was the area of Basilicata, and in particular its reds from the unique grape of aglianico. They are delicious and flavorful wines and sell at very reasonable prices. We found that producers seem to be cutting back on the late picking, overextraction and new wood to allow their wines to communicate better the region’s unique grapes and terroir. The same could also be said for the reds of Campania as we found many Taurasi and Campania IGT aglianicos that emphasize finesse and character instead of just power and new wood, which, with some exceptions, is luckily a thing of the past. Nanni Copè, Mastroberardino and Quintodecimo are dominating the Campania wine scene together with the ever-collectible labels of Montevetrano and Galardi.
Etna remains an epicenter for soulful and terroir-driven reds and the 2016s currently on release are excellent; the vintage shows grace as well as power. These are wines that will age incredibly well yet already offer excellent drinking when young. The 2015 is a little richer and fleshier, while the 2014s are balanced and very drinkable. Etna has proven it may be the best wine region in the otherwise challenging (rainy) 2014 vintage. Marco di Grazia continues to lead the fine-winemaking charge there with his various vineyard bottlings at Tenuta delle Terre Nere and Le Vigne di Eli.
Tornatore makes a number of single-vineyard Etna bottlings as well as a blend. Top wines such as these from Sicily’s famous volcano show much the same finesse expected of Grand Cru Burgundy.
We also liked a number of other Sicilian reds, many of which are made from nero d’avola. We don’t know why more top producers don’t work harder at making top-class wines from this unique grape. But we are happy that Tasca d’Almerita, Feudo Maccari and Gulfi are making excellent examples. Blending the grape with international varieties or more commonly frappato is clearly another winning formula — check out the biodynamic Occhipinti Cerasuolo di Vittoria Classico Grotte Alte 2013 to understand why.
The best wines of Sardinia are dominated by long-established names such as Argiolas, Agricola Punica and Capichera. The latter is making some really exciting reds despite the whites being better known. Look for the Albóri di Lámpata 2014, which shows wonderful richness and balance.
The sore spot for Southern Italy continues to be Puglia, where many wines produced still show bad viticultural practices and poor winemaking. We are not keen on jammy, sweet and oxidized red wines, especially when alcohol levels approach 17 or 18 percent. We hope one day to see more serious wines originating from the key appellations of the region.
Until then, stick to the many great producers and appellations spread right across Italy’s “heel” and largest two islands. There’s a wealth to discover and we look forward to extending our coverage further in 2019. — Editor, James Suckling
