Feudi di San Gregorio 'Patrimo' Campania Rosso Merlot 2016 (750ml)

Feudi di San Gregorio was founded in 1986 in Sorbo Serpico, in the hills of Irpinia near Avellino. It quickly became the flagship of southern Italy’s wine renaissance, best known for championing Campania’s native grapes, Aglianico, Fiano and Greco. It’s equally known for a devotion to design and the arts that runs from its bottle labels to its winery. Pàtrimo is the estate’s notable exception. While exploring the high-elevation vineyards of Irpinia, the team found a parcel of old, ungrafted Merlot vines, a rarity in Europe since phylloxera wiped out most of the continent’s original rootstocks over a century ago. Rather than replant, Feudi chose to preserve them. From these vines it crafts one of Campania’s most celebrated reds, a 100% Merlot bottled under the Campania IGT designation, the regional category that gives producers freedom beyond the traditional local varieties. The wine is aged about sixteen months in new French barriques. The 2016 now has nearly a decade of bottle age, which lets its dark fruit, velvety texture and the cool freshness of Irpinia’s mountain climate come together. It’s an expression of Merlot shaped unmistakably by southern Italian soil and altitude.