November
24, 2008
Feudi di San
Gregorio: Investing in Aglianico
Producer News
Sorbo Serpico (Avellino), Campania
November 24th
In view of the current economic crisis, it's reassuring
to read news that investments in viticulture and wine research
have not come to a halt. On the contrary, uncertainties
in the global market have prompted Italian producers, such
as Feudi
di San Gregorio, to devote resources to the future of
their territorio and the safeguarding of local traditions.
In the case of the Campania-based estate, the new venture
is the funding of an important study of Aglianico aimed
to promote the three major territories where this noble
red varietal is produced: the Irpinia area of Taurasi in
the Avellino province, the Sannio area of Taburno in the
Benevento province and the Vulture Lucano area in neighboring
Basilicata.
Regarded for its celebrated whites (Falangina, Greco, Fiano)
and reds (Irpinia, Serpico, Taurasi, Pàtrimo, Rubrato),
the Feudi di San Gregorio estate has always been at the
forefront of innovation with respect to the cultivation
of the region’s native varietals. The most recent
endeavor, a successful partnership that began in 2004 with
notable Champagne producer Anselme Selosse, of the Jacques
Selosse estate, to create a new line of perlage made
in Irpinia, named Dubl. These elegant spumanti from
the South have a distinct personality, very different for
their traditional alpine counterparts, and are vinified
in the metodo classico using Falanghina and Greco
in purezza for the Dubl Falanghina and Dubl
Greco, while Aglianico with a touch of Fiano
for the Dubl Rosato.
The unprecedented Aglianico project will be conducted in
collaboration with the department of viticulture and enology
of Milan's Università Statale and Università
Federico II of Naples and will have the main objective
to research the DNA of the varietal cultivated in the production
of Taurasi DOCG (considered the Barolo of the South), Taburno
and Aglianico del Vulture DOCs—three distinctive territories
characterized by black volcanic, white limestone and red
clay respectively with very different climatic conditions
producing wines of very distinct taste and aromatic characteristics.
The results of the study will soon be put into practice
in the vineyard starting next year, as the estate plans
to dedicate additional resources in the micro-vinification
of the three distinctive DNA strands of the varietal. The
goal of the ambitious experiment is the release of three
diverse bottlings of the same wine, each with its own certificate
of origin—thus providing the ultimate vertical tasting
for Aglianico lovers, a comparison not of vintages but different
territori.
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