2017 Cantine Madonna delle Grazie 'Messer Oto' Aglianico del Vulture Basilicata

Winemaker Notes:  Messer Oto is a charmer and perhaps their most versatile wine and able to appeal to a broad range of drinkers. The aging in steel preserves the wine's aromas and freshness, revealing impressive levels of bright acidity, earthiness and an ethereal nose. One might say this is the Aglianico for summer time. It's named after the fountain in Venosa, where you can see these vineyards off in the distance. Paolo commented that the wine should be easy to drink, like you're drinking from a fountain.

The two-hectare parcel of Aglianico vines that make up Messer Oto come from the family’s youngest vineyards (15 years—noted in 2019) in Venosa’s Fiano di Camera district, inside the Aglianico del Vulture DOC in southern Italy. A location 420 meters above sea level on volcanic soils full of limestones begets this wine with highly expressive with bright aromas. The normal yield is targeted at 50-55hl/ha (70-80 quintale) and the grapes are a masale selection of small berries with more polyphenols in the skin, which brings more color to the wine. These grapes are usually picked in the middle of October and are the first ones in for red wine production. Climatically it is the same as the other vineyards in their range, but the soils are better drained which results in earlier ripening than the Liscone, Bauccio and Drogone, all with more rich volcanic clay soils.