Salvatore Molettieri, Taurasi Riserva “Vigna Cinque Querce”

When I was first getting into Italian wine many years ago, there wasn’t much aged Taurasi in the market. Located in central Campania, in the shadow of the Apennine Mountains, Taurasi had plenty of history and renown as a wine region, but only one major commercial entity—the famed Mastroberardino. This was the case in lots of the poorer wine regions of the Italian south, but it changed in a big way in the 1990s with the entry of “new” producers like Salvatore Molettieri.Although his family history in wine runs deep, Molettieri didn’t start bottling estate wines until 1988, so it’s only recently that we’ve been able to see how this stuff ages. Today, we’ve got an answer for you: It ages well. Like, Jack LaLanne, still-pumping-iron-in-his-90s well. Today’s 2009 isn’t the first back-vintage Molettieri we’ve gotten access to, but it’s among the oldest, and it’s a must-have for anyone who loves classic Italian wines. It leaves no doubt that its featured grape variety, Aglianico, belongs righ