Vinosia Taurasi Riserva Rajamagra 2002 750ml

Winery: Vinosia

Varietal: Aglianico

Aglianico grapes are typically grown in the Campania region of southern Italy, where they have been an important grape varietal since the height of the Roman empire. The Romans adored their deep garnet coloured wines, and the Aglianico grape provided a beautiful colour along with high acid levels and a strong tannin content, which made it wildly popular both then and today. Nowadays, the finest Aglianico wines are usually aged in wood to soften their strong tannins, and this process allows the grapes to reveal their complex flavours of plum and chocolate, along with plenty of pleasing dark fruit and berry aromas. Often, Aglianico grapes are blended with Bordeaux varietals to make a wonderfully balanced wine. The varietal thrives most successfully in hot and dry regions, and has a particular affinity for volcanic soils.

Region: Campania

The beautiful region of Campania, located in the 'shin' of Italy's boot, has been an important center for viticulture and wine making for thousands of years. Indeed, archaeologists believe that wine making was happening in Campania as long ago as 1,200 BCE, making this one of the oldest wine regions on earth. By the time the Roman Empire starting expanding, Campania became the world's most important wine producing region, and the hundred or so native grape varietals which flourish in the mineral rich soils near the coast became the key ingredient in many of Rome's legendary classical wines. Today, the wine industry in Campania is booming once more, following a drop in the region's reputation in the 1970s, and is gaining awards, recognition and new fans each year.

Country: Italy

For several decades in the mid to late twentieth century, Italy's reputation for quality wines took a fairly serious blow. This was brought about partly due to lack of regulation in certain regions, and too much regulation in others. This led to several wineries in the beautiful and highly fertile region of Tuscany making the bold move to work outside of the law, which they saw as responsible for the drop in quality in Tuscan wines. They believed that they had the expertise and the generations of experience necessary with which to make truly excellent, world class wines, and set about doing just that. These 'Super Tuscans', as they came to be known, quickly inspired the rest of Italy to improve their produce, and now, Italian wine producers in the twenty-first century are widely recognised to be amongst the best in the world. Regulation and law began to change, and wine drinkers across the globe woke up to the outstanding wines coming out of Italy, which are continuing to improve and impress to this day.