Does alianicone really deserve the moniker, the Barolo of the South? I'm gonna pit some Tarasi against an alianicol dovol today. That's all coming up. Hello, hello, hello, oh, welcome back to exotic wine travel. I am your host, Matthew Horky. Welcome back to the show where we help you drink adventures so you can expand your palette and expand your mind. And we're going to be expanding palettes and minds today with the red grape alianicone from southern Italy. Alianicone is considered to be one of Italy's greatest red grapes, but it doesn't really have the cachet or the brand name like San Giovanni or Nebiovo. We're going to hopefully change all that today. At its peak, alianicone is capable of producing rich, complex, age-worthy wines to rival those grapes. But you know what, there's a lot of really subpar examples and I think this what gives the grape a bad name. Alianicone is a red grape that flourishes in volcanic soils, probably most famous from Tarasi in Campania and also alianicol dovol ture in Bicillicata. You also find it in Puglia. I think you might find a little bit in Calabria as well. You know the well-regarded wine writer Andi Aguina, the author of wine grapes of Italy even said, along with Nebiollo and San Giovanni, alianicone is generally believed to be one of Italy's three best wine grapes, but in my opinion it is far more. Does it really deserve the monoclorid borol of the south? I don't know, I think it's because the grape has high tannins, high acidity, light ripening, just like Nebiollo. But with bottle ages, the two wines can start to resemble each other. If you don't know what borol was, you probably do if you're watching this show, one of the great wines of Italy, one of the most coveted wines of Italy in northwest Italy, Piedmont made a hunt from the 100% Nebiollo grape wines with big time tannins, perfumey floral, just really beautiful wines. My story for alianicones is a little bit different, it's a grape I really tried to like, in theory I really wanted to like it. You know I tasted lots of examples, I even judged a few flights and competitions, but nothing really spoke to me until we were out in Singapore out at dinner and we ordered a 2002 Faudi de Sen Gregorio, piano de Monte Virginine, Tadassi and Liseirva. I know Italians and their wine names. Obviously 2002 had some age and I remember putting my nose in the glass and saying, oh wow, had some of these tari notes and some of this tobacco. It really, to me, smelled a little bit like a borolo, just a few days after that, I did a big blind tasting of borolo from Castiglione Filetto and then just a few days after that blind tasting, I had another blind tasting where I smelled the wine, I tasted the wine, I could have swarved with borolo and then when it was revealed, it was a masterbarradino, a rediti tarasi with some age on it and that's the first time I really got it. In wine you have these aha moments, that's why you have to keep trying things. The two regions where the grape is probably most well known are tarasi, like it's said in Campania and alianico del Vultore in Basilicata. In tarasi, the wines need to be at least 85% alianico, you can blend other stuff into it. In tarasi, you'll see wines that are just labeled tarasi, which need to be aged for at least three years after the harvest one and oak. And then you'll also see tarasi reserva, which needs to be aged for four years, two of those in oak. Alianico del Vultore, you'll see that DOC, those wines can be released one year after the harvest, unless they say alianico del Vultore superiorde, that means they need to be aged for at least three years, one of those in oak and then beyond that, you'll see alianico del Vultore superiorde reserva, which are aged five years, at least two in wood and two in the bottom before release. I know Italians and their Appalachian rules. Okay, let's taste a few wines. I am much more familiar with the wines of tarasi than I am alianico del Vultore, but let's start with a del Vultore first. On paper, it's an Appalachian, I feel like I should love. It's way down south in Basilicata, they only focus just on alianico, really hard to get to value driven wines. Kind of under the radar Appalachian, it's a place that I feel like wine readers really try to push up and it's a place that I hope to go to once the world clears up. I have here the de nato d'Angelo, alianico del Vultore 2017. This one, Trapequieri, at Gambero, Rosso recently, so good job by them. You know, alianico, as a grape, you're going to get some darker fruit. Think a dark plum, dark cherry. Sometimes when the wines are too overdone, they can become a little bit too jammy or prony. This one's a little bit different. You know, alianico del Vultore is a category. The wines can be really good value for money. I've seen a lot of them under 20 US dollars widely available, like this de nato de Angelo. Just I think it's tremendous value for money for a wine that can age and develop in your cellar. In general, the wines from alianico del Vultore that I've had are a little bit more softer and more finest, but I've also had a lot of poor examples too. This one's a good example. This one, you're going to get smoked meat, almost like beef jerky type flavors, red plum sweet seeder tobacco-type notes. Bigger in body, but had acidity in some grippy tanin, but not tanin that's ripping my face off. So why the definitely needs meat, but I think this is tremendous wine, especially for the price. De nato de Angelo also makes a lower level alianico del Vultore called calice, and I've seen that wine for under 15 bucks. I don't have it because I drink it all. I think that's tremendous value for money. It's an exceptional wine. It's something that I think I would buy by the case and throw it in my cellar. Let's move on to some ta-rasi. And this is a brand new producer. I don't know very well. Balavia. This is the ta-rasi 2012. This is the current release. So it's a wine that sees significant age. Now, like I said, I've had some beautiful aged ta-rasi that really taste and smell like burro lo. But when young, I don't feel like ta-rasi gets a, it really needs bottle age to develop those notes. And for smell, this is a big wine. You can smell the wood. There's wood, but it's well integrated. This is a little bit more darker fruit. A little more plum. There's still some smoked meat type flavors tobacco. Wow, I have to say, I tasted this wine a week ago, you know, with my Corvain. Put it away. I'm tasting it right now and it tastes better than I remember, actually. Really good wine. Full body. A lot of fruit. Ooh, then the pan and tape really hard. This is a wine that you need. A lot of braised meat. Some steak. Some kind of food or cheese or sparkling water. Something to wash your mouth out. I'm surprisingly good wine. Beautiful label too. I had to get up. If you have, if you're drinking wines like this, you need some sparkling water to refresh your palate. Next up, we have a producer Tanuta Cavaliere Pepe. This is the Opera Mia Tarasi 2014. Not a great vintage in Europe, but this wine is surprisingly good. Like I said, I tasted all these wines prior to this. That's why I wanted to do quality control checks so I show you the right stuff. This one is a southern Italian red through and through. I feel like it's a little bit more traditional tasting than the belaria, which is a little bit more modern. Sweet cedar for days. Like, I don't know about you. I used to shed cedar trees with my devilish chowd wood, all types of it and that smell really stuck with chewing tobacco. This is even more of a red cherry, not a black cherry type flavor. Really complex wine. More medium body, more under-controlled in this wine. The tangles are still hitting hard. They're not as big as this wine. This is a wine that's just really just has a delicious factor. I think a lot of fans of central Italian southern Italian reds are really going to get off on this wine. Tanuta Cavaliere Pepe sent me a couple of the wines to taste tonight. I really enjoyed all of them a lot. They also sent me this. This is the Roserva. This is a L'Alogia de Cavaliere Tarasi. Are these Zerva? Now this is a bigger wine than the Opera Mia. It's significantly bigger. This one actually has some Tari notes starting to develop. Tobacco again, I know I'm sounding mocha even, a really complex wine, even a little bit of smoke, full body rich. Sometimes I always agree with taking the top wine of the steak or sometimes they're just too concentrated, too overpowering, too much wood. I definitely see a step up in this wine, both are outstanding wines. This is a good showing. Thank goodness. This is a good showing of what Alianico can do. I think the problem with Alianico, I guess there's a lot of poor examples being made. When you hear the moniker, the Borolo of the South, you expect it to taste like Borolo. And Alianico, to me, does it when it's young. However, as it starts to gain bottle ages, you start to put 10, 15 years on it. That's when you start to develop the Tari notes. And since the acidity is still there, and since the tannins are pretty tight, I can really see why people say it's the Borolo of the South, even though that irks a lot of southern Italians. They might want to say, you know what, Borolo is the Tarasi of the North. I think one place for Alianico de Valtore and Tarasi is a little bit different than Borolo for me at least. Borolo has, when his grate has these perfume and flower notes, it makes it just really a pretty wine. So I'd like to know, do you like Alianico? Do you have any favorite producers? Drop it in the comments below. And I will see you at the next episode. Hello, thanks for watching. Yeah, you made it to the end. Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, click the bell so you know when new videos are out. If you like content like this, check out our Patreon page where you get some behind the scenes exclusive content. Thanks for watching. Cheers!