Technical Details
- 100% Negroamaro
- Severino Garofano with Graziana Grassini
- Italy
- Puglia
- Salice Salentino
- Caragnuli Vineyard (historic vineyard), Tenuta Iore, 10 hectares (70- and 80-year-old vines)
- Sustainable practices
- a mix of new and neutral French oak
- The name of the wine “Graticciaia” is derived from the room where the grapes are dried before fermentation takes place in stainless steel and concrete tanks
- 12 months in French oak followed by maturation in concrete tanks
- 14.5%
Vallone Rosso Graticciaia Salento 2018
Sustainable practices
17% OFF RETAIL!
Agricole Vallone was founded in 1934 when the lands of Professor Donato Vallone merged with those brought as dowry by Commendatore De Marco to his daughter Maria, creating a 500-hectare agricultural reality across three estates near Brindisi in Puglia. Graticciaia is the estate’s most iconic wine, and the technique behind it is as fascinating as the result: hand-selected Negroamaro grapes from an 80-year-old alberello (bush-vine) vineyard called Caragnuli in San Pancrazio Salentino are laid out on graticci (woven reed mats, from which the wine takes its name) to dry, concentrating sugars, aroma, and flavor before a slow fermentation in late autumn and 12 months in French oak barriques. The technique was first attempted in 1980 by enologist Severino Garofano after years of experimentation, and the first vintage was 1986. Puglia’s answer to Amarone, the wine has since become one of southern Italy’s most serious and collectible bottles.
The 2018 is garnet-ruby with complex aromas of dried fruit, licorice, tobacco, vanilla, and sweet spice, warm and elegantly structured on the palate with soft tannins and a long, satisfying finish of dried fruit and dried flowers. Beautifully concentrated yet never heavy, carrying the distinctive southern Italian richness of Negroamaro with uncommon finesse. A wine of enormous personality at a price that makes it one of the most exciting finds in this entire collection. Very limited. Don’t pass it up.