Although Sicily’s Mount Etna has lately stolen some of the spotlight, Taurasi is still the premier red wine appellation of the Italian south. It covers a relatively small cluster of hills in the Irpinia region of central Campania—about 50 kilometers east of Naples but, terroir-wise, a world away. Irpinia is the start of the climb into the Campanian Apennines, with vineyard altitudes typically averaging around 400 meters in thickly forested hillside sites (chestnut groves are another key feature of the region). The soils are a mix of calcareous marls and volcanic deposits, and it’s the latter that the great Aglianico-based reds of the south really speak to: There’s a brooding, smoky, deeply mineral structure to Aglianico that can be downright ferocious, more forbidding in some cases than young Barolo wines from Piedmont. One of Aglianico’s distinguishing features is its nearly unrivaled concentration of anthocyanins—the phenolic compounds that intensify color pigmentation and tannin.

Along with his son, Giovanni, Salvatore Molettieri farms 13 hectares of vineyards in the Campanian village of Montemarano, including the “Cinque Querce” (“five oaks”) vineyard, which climbs to 550 meters of elevation. The cool microclimate and limestone/clay soils allow for a long, slow maturation of the late-ripening Aglianico, the harvest of which can sometimes extend into November. The Molettieris bottle a normale (aged 48 months in oak casks of different sizes) and a riserva (60 months in wood) from the site. 

Although this small parcel of 2008 is their normale bottling, it’s still very much a smoky, dark-fruited, iron-clad behemoth. It’s also much more savory and fine-grained than the 2013 Riserva that’s also on offer, and the more approachable wine of the pair at the moment. Give it 45 minutes in a decanter and pour into large Bordeaux stems to reveal a powerful, intoxicating nose full of cassis, dried black cherry and plum, charred violet, cedar, pencil lead, crushed black rock, sandalwood, licorice, menthol, old leather, scorched earth, and wild herbs. The palate is gargantuan and mouth-filling but 14 years of age have softened this once-coarse brute into a wizened gentleman. Enjoy over one or two evenings and stow your remaining bottles for consumption over the next 5-7 years.