San Francesco 2009 Cirò Rosso Classico (Calabria) – 100% gaglioppo. Big and sun-drenched, of course, but the heavy shoulders are rounded as they support leathery black-strap fruit and a roughened cashmere structure, giving the whole thing a surprising amount of symmetry. (11/11)
Browse Tag
calabria
Old & bitter
Caffo Vecchio Amaro “del Capo” (Calabria) – Unfortunately, I remember little about this liqueur, except a sensation of depth and a better balance of bitter and sweet than is typical (usually, amari tip towards one side or the other). (6/09)
Librandi old-fashioned
![[bottle]](http://www.librandi.it/sito_2006/schedevinihtml/bottiglie/cirobianco.gif)
Librandi 2007 Cirò Bianco (Calabria) – Rocky outcroppings of golden stone and a rich complexity of sun-baked fruit. Intense, perhaps even just the slightest bit heavy, but quite appealing nonetheless. (4/09)
Neto gain
Librandi 2000 Val di Neto “Gravello” (Calabria) – Structured and very aromatic. Structured. Did I say that already? Well, there’s a lot of it in relation to the aromatics. Some salted gravel makes up the middle, and it’s reasonably long, but I’m not sure this wine is in its best stage. (9/08)
TN: Gravello road
![[bottle]](http://www.librandi.it/sito_2006/schedevinihtml/bottiglie/gravello.jpg)
Librandi 1999 Val di Neto “Gravello” (Calabria) – Gaglioppo and cabernet sauvignon. The only sign that this isn’t all cabernet is the juicy, tongue-poking acidity. It’s tightly screwed and a little squinched, and deserves a good decant, but for a fierce, sun-baked southern wine it shows more authenticity than artifice. The cabernet somewhat counter-intuitively runs towards the herb/pepper spectrum, but behind that is a sharp, black cherry and raspberry acidic throb. I’m prepared to be suspicious, but end up liking it a good deal. It still needs plenty of time, however, as the tannin and tightness are still somewhat dominant. (3/07)