D’Angelo, Aglianico del Vulture

Most people who work in wine can name bottles that are indelibly etched in their memory—the ones that helped shape the way they think about wine, the ones that forever deepened their love of wine, or both. My pal André Mack, a celebrated sommelier and now winemaker, wrote a whole book on the subject, listing 99 such bottles. If I were ever to compile such a list, you can be sure D’Angelo’s Aglianico del Vulture would be on it.When I first started traveling in Italy and studying its wines more than 20 years ago, D’Angelo was a regional benchmark, and it continues in that role today, perfectly capturing the character of the Aglianico grape grown in the volcanic soils of Monte Vulture, in the tiny, mountainous region of Basilicata. If you were writing a wine list and wanted a single bottle to capture everything that makes this part of the world special, this wine would be a perfect choice. Wedged between Puglia (the “heel”) and Calabria (the “toe”) in southern Italy, Basilicata has histor