2014 Greco di Tufo Giallo d’Arles

Owner Luigi Moio is generally regarded as one of the two or three top experts on Campanian grapes. An enology professor at the University of Naples, he consults for a number of famous estates in Campania and elsewhere in Italy, and in 2001 founded the Quintodecimo estate with his wife. Moio knows Campania well, and so it's hardly a surprise that his Fiano grapes grow in Lapio, his Greco grapes in Tufo, and his Aglianico at Mirabella Eclano, in the heart of the Taurasi production zone. What I find most noteworthy, however, is the almost 360-degree shift that the wines, especially the whites, have undergone in recent years. Whereas ten years ago they were big, ripe and almost fat, and went through full malolactic transformation, Moio has done only a partial malolactic since 2010. The wines have gained in drinkability and freshness as a result, and with the latest vintage, 2014, Moio has avoided the secondary fermentations altogether and the wines are even better for it. Although Moio's reds are huge, powerful, very impressive wines, after more than ten years of tasting here I believe that the Greco di Tufo Giallo d’Arles is his best bottling.