Feudi San Gregorio: Parade 2021 of 4 Irpinia wines

My intellectual honesty prevents me from saying - and writing - something I don't think... so here I am telling you about the 4 wines of the "Feudi San Gregorio's 'Parade 2021. I anticipate that there is a treat you should try, and how! However, there is also a wine that did not convince me as I believe it to be a 'victim' of a slightly too hot vintage. The press preview was held on 11 May 2021 on Zoom and it was a well-done experience, thanks to the excellent management that had provided us with everything we needed, from beautiful glasses with satin stems to the wines.

Feudi San Gregorio: Pietra Calda 2020.

Tasting notes:

Brilliant straw yellow with greenish highlights. On the nose notes of vanilla, apple, tangerine peel bathed in white chocolate, Grechetto basil, oregano flowers. In the mouth it is warm, fresh, quite savoury and round. Good drinkability, although the alcohol content is a little noticeable.

Company Notes:

Fiano, a variety indigenous to Irpinia that has also found a place in other areas because it is a very plastic variety, resistant to phytopathologies and with a thick skin. In some vineyards we ripen it until December to allow the aromatic framework to express itself differently, without producing sweet wines. Because of its adaptability we find it in California, Australia, etc.

is the more horizontal, less acidic and less vertical variety. It is now freshly bottled and needs a few months to express itself better.

Our style is to add as little as possible, 600 hectares DOCG, Feudi has 100 hectares plus others conferred.

The Feudi Studi project was a tool to get to know our territory better. Feudi is a company that works in a very large territory with many small conferring vineyards that often have better grapes than ours because they have older vineyards that give you the highest quality. Our strength is the conferor who are hundreds of people with small vineyards who manage them as a good family man in the best possible way. This heterogeneity means that when we make the cuts we have for each type even 60-70 different types with different nuances available and this allows us to make a great product.

Feudi San Gregorio: Cutizzi 2020

Here is the gem, the Irpinian wine from Feudi San Gregorio that you should absolutely try!

Tasting notes:

Slightly more concentrated in colour than Fiano, it is an intense, bright straw yellow. The nose is brackish, with notes of yellow peach, ripe pear, iodine, Mediterranean scrub, lime zest, chinotto, salted butter. In the mouth it is very fresh, extremely savoury, warm, consistent, fascinating. Great persistence and great balance, it has a lot of potential for evolution in the bottle.

Company Notes:

Tufo is a town with special soils and there are sulphur mines there, mines that closed with the earthquake. The Greco di Tufo is savoury and vertical. The plant expresses itself differently from area to area. The greco di Tufo is here in Tufo, an area made up of 8 municipalities with grapes that behave differently depending on the terrain. The most vertical are those above the mines. The yields are low, around 40 quintals if it goes well. Greek is rich in catechins and tends to oxidise and we oxidise it even earlier, so it does not see the sulphur dioxide.

Feudi San Gregorio: Vision 2020

I found it a pleasant and delicate rosé wine, perfect for those who love the Provençal style. Be careful with pairings: this wine is closer to a fragrant white than a rosé as many expect. The winery says it is inspired by Garda wines, but in my experience these are much more 'loaded' on both nose and palate. Visione di Feudi San Gregorio goes well with carpaccio and freshwater fish tartare.

Tasting notes:

Soft onion skin pink. It is extremely delicate on the nose with barely perceptible notes of rose, oregano flowers and orange peel, making it suitable for pairing with very delicate dishes. In the mouth it is very savoury, warm, fresh and mineral. Quite persistent, it increases salivation for a long time.

Company Notes:

When producing an Aglianico rosé, it is important to have vision, determination and courage. We care a lot because it reminds us where we come from and at the same time shows us the direction we should take. Rosé for us is not just a colour, but an inspiration linked to the vocational characteristics of the terroir. For us it must be vertical, fresh and acidic. Our rosé does not macerate, simply Aglianico is vinified like a white wine and this soft pink colour is the colour of the juice. We want to create rosés that can improve over time, not last a few months. In Italy we are inspired by the rosés of Lake Garda, because in Irpinia the climate is mountainous.

Feudi San Gregorio: Taurasi 2016

Here is the wine that really did not convince me: the Taurasi 2016. To me, the nose has a hint of cooked that betrays a probably very hot vintage where the grapes were not harvested in good time. However, I can tell you that I was the only one to notice this scent and my colleagues were much more enthusiastic than I was, so it is probably my nose that is at fault... in any case, I used it for braised meat and it turned out very well. In fact, if you try it, let me know what you think!

Tasting notes:

It has a deep, almost impenetrable ruby red colour. The nose has a hint of cooked fruit that suggests to me that 2016 was perhaps a bit of a hot year and that the timing of the harvest was not quite right, unless you were looking for an overripe note that at the preview they confirmed they were not looking for. Don't get me wrong, it's still enjoyable and also drinks nicely, but I wouldn't recommend buying this particular vintage. There are also notes of ripe cherry, black pepper and a coffee aftertaste. In the mouth it is warm, soft, acidulous, savoury and structured, with a fairly long finish.

Company Notes:

Aglianico has a thin skin and therefore needs warm, dry climates and does not like rain: it spoils easily. The style of Aglianico is changing: today we no longer try to 'over-extract', but make shorter macerations of 15 days at most. Moreover, climate change favours these grapes, which have more balanced frameworks overall. Viticulture is going along with the change and freshness is not penalised as a function of alcohol. The grapes have a lot of acidity that enhances the tannin and therefore need a lot of time to round off. In any case, in the higher areas the Taurasi expresses itself better as the tannins become silkier and less coarse. In fact, despite the hot year, at an altitude of 600 metres the grapes ripened later but in better condition.

Thanks to Feudi San Gregorio and in particular Mariarita Fischetti for the pleasant experience!

Cheers

Chiara

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