Getting in on the Ground Floor: Aglianico del Vulture

BY ERIC GUIDO | MAY 28, 2024

This year’s tastings in Vulture were my most comprehensive ever. This region is easily Italy’s top underdog, with producers creating exciting varietal Aglianico from a diverse mix of locations and terroirs, taking full advantage of the variety's ability to communicate a sense of place. The wines of Vulture show the inherent characteristics of Aglianico, with an immaculate balance of primary fruit, regal tannins and stimulating acidity, all while remaining remarkably different from their neighbors in Campania. 

Barrel aging cellars cut into the tuff soils at Basilisco.

The towns of Barile, Venosa, Rionero, Ripacandida, Ginestra and Maschito all yield an outstanding selection of wines, each place imparting its unique stamp of terroir. Top producers within each of these townships make wines from single vineyards and parcels that elevate Aglianico even further. The diverse terroir of Vulture mixes volcanic lava flows upwards of 600 meters in the township of Barile, while in Ginestra, we find ash, volcanic sand, rocks and calcareous clay. When the now-dormant volcano Vulture erupted, it created a wide range of soils in the surrounding areas. Lava is predominant in sites close to the crater (which sits around 500 meters in elevation in Maschito) but then transitions to a complex mix of soils in more peripheral areas. This is the reason for the region's many different interpretations of Aglianico. The variety finds the perfect home in Vulture’s soil also because of its ability to retain water and the mild conditions that allow Aglianico to reach polyphenolic ripeness. Moreover, the constant wind currents that tear through Vulture create ideal ventilation to help ward off disease and moderate temperatures in warmer seasons. 

In my recent piece on Campania, I explained that the region's reds could compete with Italy's longest-lived and most important wines. I feel the exact same way about Vulture, yet here we have much lower production, with producers concentrated in a smaller area. In many cases, there is even more value to be found in Vulture.

Similar to Campania, parcels of 70- to 100-year-old vines spread throughout the towns of Vulture, which are caringly tended by producers like Basilisco, Elena Fucci, Grifalco and Cantine del Notaio. In the most traditional cases, these vines are intermixed with fruit and olive trees and trained using a cane system known as Capanno (which means "shed”), requiring meticulous attention and constant maintenance. Vulture is a region with a rich history of vine-growing; only 25 years ago, large producers and co-ops dominated the industry. Today, there’s an unmistakable energy as winemakers work toward the future. 

The secluded nature of the location has limited the attention that Vulture's producers receive and deserve. While Basilicata attracts a massive number of tourists to its beach towns, Vulture itself is a vacation destination exclusively for hikers and nature enthusiasts; visiting the crater lakes and parks is the only draw to the area. The lack of infrastructure had cut off the region from much of Italy up until only decades ago. Even visiting a town such as Barile, it is remarkable to observe the cultural and physical similarities of its inhabitants, as this is a part of Italy that remains largely untouched by the outside world. Frankly, coming from a melting pot of cultures myself, I find this quite unsettling.