Another Vulture has landed…
Thanks to Elena Fucci and her husband, Andrea Manzani, a bottle of their latest release from Titolo has just arrived down here, and we managed to taste it at lunch yesterday, Friday 3 January, 2020.
I was a little worried that it would be far too young to enjoy, but as usual I was very wrong. Though the vintage, 2017, was indeed a difficult one, the mix of Barile volcanic soil and the skill of Elena as a winemaker, makes this one of the most delicious forward drinking Titolo I have had the pleasure of drinking, to date. I have shipped to London the 2014, 2015, 2016 vintages and now 2017 is on it`s way.
So despite the heat of the 2017 vintage, and the other climatic difficulties during the year, this Aglianico del Vulture comes across as more closed and rigid at first. It takes a few moments to open, and I mean just a few moments in the glass and then becomes very generous indeed, a highly expressive wine. I will always recommend that Titolo spends a few years in the cellar before drinking, but on this occasion why wait. Keep your 2015 and 2016 for later, if you still have any that is, hidden away for a bit longer and really enjoy this 2017 now.
It shows black fruit, some inkyness, resin and asphalt volcanicness. It is rolled into one firmly textured and tightly knit Basilcatian expression that truly blossoms when it breathes. I decanted our bottle into one of Zalto`s magnum decanter. It really is quite a sexy! wine.
If you want to share some, it will set you back a mere 35 pounds a bottle `under bond` at LCB Vinotheque. (That means you have to add on HM’s Duty & Excise and local delivery charges plus VAT. Elena and Andrea only produced 28,000 bottles of this vintage which may seem like a lot to you, but I can assure you that in this day and age, with the global wine market as it stands, it is a ‘limited production’ wine in hi-end Italian rosso standards. Bare in mind that Sassicaia TSG has three times the amount of bottles of wine each year available, more than Titolo! and is also four or five times more expensive, and this is for a wine of really the same level and expertise in the cellar, and of course, not from the same province.
Arrivederci!