Somos Biodynamic Aglianico 2023

How to tame those aglianico tannins! This is classically styled in a sense, but has the vibrancy, energy and brightness of a contemporary wine. Black and bramble fruits, licorice, fennel, cola, rosemary and violets. Sweet and sour fruit, some fruit case spice, seaweed, tobacco and a tension between angular tannins, prickling acidity and pure high toned fruit. Wonderful. Norris at Waters Wine Co

This has aglianico’s dark fruit and spicing, but it’s set in a minor key, a long way from the gruff exemplars. Lapsang souchong tea, potpourri, bay leaf, Dr Pepper, cherry cola, raspberry pastille, black cherry juice, bitter herbs, the palate slippery and saline, with cocoa-dusted tannins and a sour cherry tension concluding. It’s no more than mid-weight, so spicy and tangy, chillable, but not too much, and really engaging. It’s got a medicinal-tonic quality – think a cross between pinot noir and mencía, amaro, or some 19th-century cure-all prior to morphing into a soft drink – and I mean that in a good way! 93 Points, Halliday Wine Companion