2019 SCEG Aglianico del Vulture

Elena Fucci is easily one of the most talented winemakers in the southern Italian region of Basilicata. Her family owns the oldest vineyards on Vulture, an extinct volcano that produces some of the finest reds in Southern Italy. As her family started to drift away from winemaking and pursued other careers, their vineyards were very nearly sold until, at the last moment, Elena had a change of heart and could not bear to sell off her great-grandfather's land. So, in 2000, Elena started to make wine, staking everything on making only one wine, one single vineyard, called TITOLO. The rest, as they say , is history. TITOLO is one of the most recognizable and excellent wines in the region. 

In 2016, Elena Fucci began another passion project, SCEG, to help out friends of her 94-year-old grandfather Generoso. To preserve their vines and tradition, she makes this special wine from his friends’ vines, four parcels near her family’s vineyards, and vines ageing 70+ years. SGEC (pronounced Sheg) is organically farmed Aglianico, spending one year in tonneaux and 6 months in bottle before release. Fans of Nebbiolos from Barolo in Piedmont owe themselves to try Aglianico wines, and there is no better place to start than here. Wild dark fruits with violets and spice, with some savory thyme and a stony minerality framed by well integrated, polished tannins. Alluring violet and dusky blueberry perfume opens this fuller wine, gripped with wild cassis, blackberry, dried thyme, and ample stony minerality. Tannins are firm, lightly grippy, and well-integrated, shaping this streamlined wine to a lingering spiced finish. This wine is begging for roasted meats like lamb.