Feudi di San Gregorio, Irpinia Aglianico IGT (Campania, Italy) 2008

There are good wines. There are great wines. Then there are wines that demand their own special category, wines so profound they stun you at the first sip, wines with gravitas. Serpico ’08 is one of those. It is the flagship wine of Feudi di San Gregorio, a winery founded in the tiny village of Sorbo Serpico in the Irpinia region of Campania in 1986. It is 100 percent aglianico from 70-year-old vines planted at elevations of more than 1000 feet in the sandstone, marl and volcanic ash soils of the region. The 2008 is beautifully structured; a well-proportioned wine that exhibits layered blackberry, wild cherry and plum aromas, with touches of vanilla spice and mocha. It also delivers scintillating acidity, smooth tannins and a thread of minerality. This is a monumental wine that will only improve if aged properly over the next 20 years.