I didn’t just like today’s wine. I became obsessed with it. This is partly because I’ve visited its picture-book village of origin, and partly because it is, in its own way, perfect.
It is a pure and impeccably crafted expression of one of southern Italy’s Pliny the Elder-era grape varieties, Piedirosso, which you don’t see in ‘varietal’ form very often. At just $20, it pulses with energy, tastes like a place, and gets better with time open. It’s a no-oak, no-nonsense expression of the volcanic tuff of the Benevento province, in north-central Campania, where its hometown of Sant’Agata dei Goti is located. I once got my car stuck in an archway on a narrow street in Sant’Agata dei Goti (one of those Italian towns that looks like it grew out of the yellowish rock on which it sits) while on my way to visit Paola Mustilli, one of the two sisters who run the historic and exquisitely restored Mustilli winery. In the years since, I’ve watched their wines get better and better—cleaner, deeper, more polished, without losing their terroir character—and this 2017 is the best Piedirosso I’ve ever tasted. If that’s not enough for you, I’ll take it a step further: Pound for pound, it’s probably the most memorable and satisfying Italian wine I’ve had in a long while. I want in on tap at my house, but in the absence of that I’ll hoard some bottles instead. You really should do the same!
The Mustilli family traces its roots in Sant’Agata dei Goti to the 1500s, but in the modern era, it was engineer Leonardo Mustilli who officially launched the family wine brand in the early 1970s. Headquartered in a historic palazzo, Leonardo and his wife, Marilì, revived vineyards in Sant’Agata dei Goti (and effectively turned it into their monopole) and were the first to vinify the white Falanghina grape in varietal form. Eventually, control of the wine operation passed from Leonardo (who passed away in 2017) to Paola and her viticulturist/winemaker sister, Anna Chiara. The old palazzo is now a beautiful agriturismo and its cellars, hand-excavated from the local tuff (tufo in Italian), serve as a barrel room for aging reds. Anna Chiara farms the family plots organically, and shows a deft touch in the winery—this estate, now operating out of a more modern facility, has really come into its own.
The name Piedirosso (“red feet”) came from Roman writer Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia, referring to the red stalks of the variety’s grape bunches. Although there’s no genetic connection, Piedirosso often feels like a less-intense version of Aglianico: there’s dark berry fruit, spice, tannin, and a hint of smoke. Mustilli’s 2017 has a deeper color and more fruit character than most Piedirosso I’ve tried, without losing the volcanic minerality that is a varietal signature.
Today’s 100% Piedirosso from Mustilli carries the Sannio DOC appellation, which encompasses vineyards in and around Benevento, where the local landmark is a 4,500-foot limestone massif called Monte Taburno—an outcropping not dissimilar to some of the limestone-rich roches (Solutré; Vergisson) found in Burgundy in France. The soil composition of the surrounding area is mostly tuffaceous (i.e. volcanic) limestone, which lends reds and whites alike a distinctive crunchiness, freshness, and deep mineral footprint.
Fermented and aged in stainless steel, Mustilli’s 2017 Piedirosso delivers a level of old-vine depth and fruit purity that is above and beyond the norm for the category. In the glass, it’s a vibrant ruby red with hints of purple and pink, with lively aromas of black currant, black raspberry, pomegranate, violets, black pepper, and a hint of resin and ash. It is medium-bodied and loaded with mouth-watering freshness, with enough tannic bite to take on a grilled steak. For those unfamiliar with this grape/place, think of more structured examples of Cru Beaujolais or maybe a classically styled Dolcetto from Italy’s Piedmont. It is ready to drink now and over the next few years, and as I said above, it only gets better as the night goes on—although, if there’s anyone besides yourself on the bottle, prepare for it to disappear quickly. Serve it at the cooler end of the 60-65 degree spectrum to soften its acidity and accentuate the dark fruit, and pair it with burgers, short ribs, baked pastas, and the like. It’s not a big wine, but it has backbone. It has everything you need, really, and at $20 no less. I can’t get enough!
