2017 Aglianico del Vulture

Simply put, Elena Fucci is one of Italy’s finest red wine producers and has been at the top of the country’s quality pyramid since they started making wine in 2000. The estate has transitioned effortlessly from the reign of Salvatore Fucci to daughter Elena, who has continued Salvatore’s legacy of one great wine after another. The winery is not resting on their laurels, either: Fucci has just bought another hectare in the Solagna del Titolo contrada, which is one of the Vulture’s two or three best subzones. These old vines are adjacent to those of the famous Titolo vineyard. Unfortunately, the 30-year-old Aglianico vines had been abandoned for about a decade, and after trying for two years to nurse them back to full health, Fucci eventually gave up and replanted the whole hectare with massale selections of Aglianico from the Titolo vineyard. The first wines from this “new” vineyard will most likely be from the 2023 vintage, though Elena Fucci told me she is not sure if the wine from the young vines will be good enough to blend into her estate wine. Time will tell. In other interesting news, Fucci has also begun experimenting with terra-cotta amphoras for aging (rather than as a winemaking vessel). The winery will be bottling this terra-cotta-aged 2017 Aglianico del Vulture next year, and it will go on sale around November 2020. Production will be just over 900 bottles.