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S.C. Pannell

2020

Aglianico

Red Wine   |   McLaren Vale - Australia
Shelf Talker Spec Sheet Wine Label Bottle Image

About

The truly wondrous thing about great wine is that it speaks of where it comes from. That sense of having come from a discrete site or location and capable of reflecting those characters in it’s shape and location. One of the top three Italian red varieties along with Nebbiolo and Sangiovese, Aglianico is often referred to as the Nebbiolo of the south. While it has an ability to covert site specific nuances it always preserves its identity. A combination and balance of rustic charm, defined acidity, powerful flavor and most importantly strong tannin. This all makes for a good translation on the Oliver’s Road site, but how best to describe a vintage in a pandemic? Problematic. A dry start to the season with lower than expected winter and spring rainfall followed by a day of intense heat right on flowering lead to some early anxiety around yields. Fires and the devastation they bring struck around Christmas and many of their growers losing the livelihoods weighed heavy as they went into vintage. Thankfully the days got cooler sooner than anticipated allowing long even ripening.

The grapes were hand-picked in early April, fermented in an open top fermenter spending 26 days on skins and receiving daily pump overs before being sent to puncheons for maturation and malolactic fermentation. The wines were bottled without fining or filtration in July 2021, with just a small dose of sulfur.

Stats

  • Grapes: 100% Aglianico
  • Vineyard: Oliver's Road (McLaren Vale)
  • Vine Age: 8-years-old
  • Soil Type: Iron-rich siltstone over limestone
  • Viticulture: Sustainable
  • Fermentation: Native — stainless-steel
  • Skin Contact: 26 days
  • Aging: 12 months in French oak puncheons
  • Alcohol: 14%
  • pH: 3.42
  • Total Acidity: 7.6 g/L
  • Total SO2: 56 ppm
  • Total Production: 275 cases
  • UPC: None

Tasting Notes

This is a classic example of a red variety with natural tannin grown in a warm place. On the nose there is chinotto, new leather, old furniture, spicy red pepper, deeply flavored dark fruit, walnuts and Italian sausage thrown in for good measure. The palate is loaded with Maraschino cherry, satsuma plum, dusty earth and terracotta. This wine has a tannic tail that beckons the next sip.

Press & Reviews

The Wine Front

94

"Well, this is very good. Black cherry essence, liquorice, sweet spice and dried flowers, with a savoury dark tobacco and ferrous quality, and maybe a suggestion of Ovaltine in there? It’s deep in flavour, but fresh, popping with cherry pip acidity, ferrous feeling tannin, and subtle bitterness of orange peel and dried herb on a stony finish of excellent length."
- Gary Walsh

Wine Advocate

94

"This 2020 Aglianico is spicy and a bit broody and loaded with pomegranate, pink peppercorns, damsons, raspberries and black cherry. In the mouth, the tannic framework is everything: fine, pliable and verging on silty, all the while holding in and up the fruit. Australia's greatest Aglianico."
- Erin Larkin

Producer


S.C. Pannell

Region


McLaren Vale

Country


Australia

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