Estate 1
Cantine del Notaio
Visit →Rionero in Vulture
Tastings available
Basilicata · DOCG
Aglianico del Vulture Superiore DOCG Basilicata's Volcanic Red Wine, Explained
Basilicata's only DOCG, born on a volcano. Aglianico del Vulture Superiore is a 100% Aglianico red, aged at least three years before release. It grows in fifteen towns around the extinct cone of Mount Vulture, in northern Basilicata. Volcanic soils, hillside vineyards from 200 to 700 metres and a grape that ripens late and is picked in November. The result is one of southern Italy's longest-lived reds.
7
Wines live now
£28-£71
Price range today
6
UK retailers
The boundary
Where it is
Everything on this page, the estates, the bottles, the sub-zones, sits inside this line.
Estate 2
Elena Fucci
Visit →Barile
Book online
Denomination
Grapes Used
Estate 3
Azienda Agricola Musto Carmelitano
Visit →Maschito
Tastings available
Denomination
Grapes Used
Estate 4
Azienda Vinicola Paternoster
Visit →Barile
Tastings available
Denomination
Grapes Used
Estate 5
Cantina di Venosa
Visit →Venosa
Tastings available
Denomination
Grapes Used
Estate 6
Vigne Mastrodomenico
Visit →Barile
Tastings available
Denomination
Grapes Used
Aglianico del Vulture Superiore DOCG zone
Estates you can visit
In the glass
What it tastes like
Black cherry
Black pepper
Leather
Plum
Smoked meat
The disciplinare
The rules that define it
The same table on every denomination page, straight from the production rules.
Grape & its role
Share of the blend
050100%
Aglianico100% Aglianico per disciplinare DOCG (Decree 02.08.2010, GU 188)100%Solid means the rules demand it. Striped means optional, up to that amount. The words on the right say the same rule.
Every wine must pass a release tasting before it may carry the denomination.
Editor's cellar
Bottles to try, and what Aglianico del Vulture Superiore costs in the UK
Every live Aglianico del Vulture Superiore listing, cheapest to dearest
6 wines · 6 retailers
Live prices, compared across 6 UK retailers.
Cellar doors · inside the zone
Estates you can visit
6 working estates with their gates open, numbered to match their pins on the map above.
Only show
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Experiences in the Aglianico del Vulture Superiore zone
Cellar experiences here average around €33. These are the strongest fits for this page.
Tasting & tour
Discover Titolo World
Elena Fucci
Visit to the vineyards where the crù Titolo is born, illustration of the peculiarities of the territory. Visit to the cellars, illustration …
2 h From €30 pp
Book via
Winalist
Tasting & tour
Discover Title World & Old Vintage
Elena Fucci
Visit to the vineyards where the crù Titolo is born, illustration of the peculiarities of the territory. Visit to the cellars, illustration …
2 h From €35 pp
Book via
Winalist
Tasting & tour
Discover Elena Fucci World - Tour & Tasting
Elena Fucci
A walk through vineyards and cellar, between past and future, to discover and taste the Classics of the Elena Fucci winery.
1 h 30 From €35 pp
Book via
Winedering
Vintage provenance
Why there is no vintage chart
No denomination-wide vintage chart is currently published for Aglianico del Vulture Superiore DOCG. Production sits at around 71 hectares and 500 hectolitres a year, and the appellation is reviewed estate by estate rather than through a maintained annata table. Look to top producers including Paternoster, Basilisco and Elena Fucci for vintage commentary.
What to check instead
The producer: quality here is tracked estate by estate rather than year by year.
How Aglianico del Vulture Superiore is made
The rules set a strict spine. The grapes are 100% Aglianico. Growers may pick no more than 80 quintals per hectare, which is 8 tonnes of grapes. No more than 65% of that weight may become juice. Alcohol must reach at least 13.5%. Total acidity must be at least 4.5 grams a litre, and dry extract at least 26 grams a litre. Aglianico ripens late on Vulture. It is picked from late October into November, once cool autumn nights have built tannin and acid. Superiore must age at least 36 months before it goes on sale, 12 of them in wood and 12 in bottle. Riserva moves to 60 months, with 24 in wood and 12 in bottle. Small new French oak barrels increasingly replace the old chestnut casks that were once standard in Basilicata's tufa cellars.
In depth
Aglianico's roots in this corner of Basilicata go back to the Greek colonisation of southern Italy, in the seventh and sixth centuries BC. Horace was born in Venosa in 65 BC, and he sang the praises of Lucanian wine in his Odes. Frederick II's Swabian court and the Angevin kings of Naples both drew on the wines of Vulture. A 1280 Angevin requisition orders 400 salme of vino rubeo Melfie for Castel Lagopesole. The DOC was awarded in 1971. The Superiore tier was raised to DOCG by the August 2010 ministerial decree, the first and still only DOCG in Basilicata.
The territory is one extinct volcano. Mount Vulture rises to 1,327 metres. Its eastern and southern flanks fall towards the Ofanto valley, across fifteen towns of Potenza province. They include Rionero in Vulture, Barile, Rapolla, Venosa and Melfi. Soils are sandy, sandy pozzolan and silty clay, rich in minerals and free-draining. Vineyards sit between 200 and 700 metres, on east and south-east facing slopes. Summer days reach 35°C under hot African winds, and autumn nights drop sharply. Rainfall is 650 to 750 millimetres, and most of it falls between October and March.
Production is small: about 500 hectolitres a year, roughly 66,500 bottles, from 71 hectares of registered Superiore vineyard. The leading estates anchor the region's identity. They include Paternoster, Basilisco, Cantine del Notaio, Elena Fucci's single-vineyard Titolo, Grifalco and Macarico. The signature note in the glass is sour black cherry over volcanic graphite and tobacco. The tannins settle and turn velvety after eight to twelve years in bottle.
On the table
What to eat with Aglianico del Vulture Superiore
The home country leads; global pairings that genuinely work follow.
In-depth guide
Aglianico del Vulture Superiore, answered
Aglianico del Vulture Superiore DOCG is made in fifteen towns of Potenza province in Basilicata. They sit on and around the extinct volcano of Mount Vulture. The main villages are Rionero in Vulture, Barile, Rapolla, Venosa and Melfi.
It is a 100% Aglianico red. The rules allow no other grape. Every bottle comes only from grapes grown in the fifteen approved towns around Mount Vulture.
Superiore is aged at least 36 months before release. That includes 12 months in wood and 12 months in bottle. Riserva is aged at least 60 months, including 24 months in wood and 12 months in bottle.
Both are 100% Aglianico from the same fifteen towns. The Superiore DOCG carries stricter rules: at least 13.5% alcohol, lower yields and longer ageing. It must also pass a tasting panel test before bottling. The wines are usually richer and built to cellar for longer.
Top examples drink well from eight to twelve years and can hold for twenty years or more. The volcanic acidity and firm tannin structure carry the wine through a long life in bottle. Sour cherry softens into leather and tobacco.
Match it with slow-cooked Lucanian and Mediterranean food. Lamb agnello al forno, baccalà al ragù and pasta with Senise pepper-laced ragù all work. So do aged caciocavallo podolico and grilled red meat. All of them stand up to its tannin and depth.
Explore more Basilicata
Same region only: the denominations Aglianico del Vulture Superiore drinkers reach for next.
