Luigi Tecce "Puro Sangue" Taurasi Riserva, Campania, Italy 2018

FROM PORTOVINO:

THE WINE: Puro Sangue is Tecce’s Taurasi Riserva bottling of pure radiating medieval pleasure; the chalice of wine as the blood of Christ. There’s nothing archaic here like in the Poliphemo bottling, but the wine is just as serious, with length tapers endlessly, offering generous fruit and spice, but also maintaining tension (we are still in the high-altitude Taurasi growing area of Paternopoli). The tannins are more honed here than in Poliphemo, making this wine seems somewhat more ceremonial tone.

THE PRODUCER: A visit to Luigi Tecce can get you emotional. Luigi himself is a ball of them, and his Aglianico from Taurasi elicits them. His grandfather’s masseria (farmhouse) and vineyards are located in the Taurasi subzone known as Sud-Alta Valle (South-High Valley). It’s one of Taurasi’s high-altitude growing areas, having a soil that’s layered with sand, limestone and Vesuvius’ pumice; it’s also the dwelling of Luigi’s 80+ year old vine-trees. There’s no enologist and no agronomist, Luigi works in relative solitude. Maybe that’s why there’s such an affinity between him and the wines: exuberant and guarded, archaic and immediate, literary and literal; there’s something theatrical in their pleasure. The wines come from the tradition and grandeur of Mastroberardino’s Taurasi bottlings, but I feel Luigi’s one of a very limited group of Taurasi producers that are eclipsing the old master.