2023 Côte du Denis by Odonata, Aglianico, Barr Vineyard, Paso Robles.
I recently, twice, was at Odonata checking in on winemaker Denis Hoey’s latest wines and fell in love with his new release of rustic and meaty Aglianico, this 2023 version is a deep garnet color and firmly tannic, like Nebbiolo meets Tannat, with brambly/earrhy Marionberry, plum, balsamic reduced strawberry and blood orange fruits, along with minty herbs, anise, cedar and truffle notes. This full bodied red, captures the varietal very nicely, and with its raw intensity it really needs food to show its best, and I would love it even more with roast lamb, lamb rags, hard cheeses and wild mushroom dishes. Coming from the limestone based soils of Paso, where it gets the kind of long sunny hot days it needs, the Aglianico grape thrives and Denis has done a good job of getting all of the guts right here, letting the grape express its raw and grippy form and varietal personality. Hoey 100% de-stemmed the Aglianico berries, fermented them for 20 days on the skins to get full extraction, then pressed the juice into barrels to finish malos and mature. The Côte du Denis Barr Vineyard Aglianico, only 124 cases made, saw 100% French Oak, including a fresher1 500L puncheon and 4 used 60-gallon barrels or barrique, where it spent the better part of year. Even in a cool vintage, with good acidity on display, this Aglianico, native to Italy’s south, wine got nice and ripe, finishing with 14.9% natural alcohol, again making food choices a key to enjoying it.
Hoey always has some new and exciting surprises at his Odonata winery on River Road in the Santa Lucia Highlands, with his most recent set of wines being real charmers, including his Champagne style sparklers, his Sangiovese, the Chardonnays and the Syrahs being some of my favorites here this time. Thanks to Daniella at Odonata for taking us in after hours and showing us this fun small lot bottling, and being patient with us after a long day, this is one of the best spots to explore if you get to Monterey’s wine country! As I’ve mentioned before, all of us in the wine business, love and respect Denis Hoey, he is one of the most genuine and nicest persons who could ever hope to meet. So I highly recommend his wines and there’s always something to excite your palate here. For me this time, it was Odonata’s fabulous latest disgorgement of Methode Champenoise bubbly and this Côte du Denis Aglianico, the “Barolo of the South” red grape that comes from Italy’s Campania region and its a dark hearty grape, which when done right can rival its more famous compatriots from Tuscany and Piemonte. Rarely elegant and or stylish, this grape is known more for its rustic charm and ferocity, but when you have a top notch version from place like the Taurasi DOC and or Aglianico del Vulture DOC it can be profound and very age worthy. California-Italian (Cal-Itals) wines are seeing a huge rise in popularity and the quality of them is really something you should check out, especially wines like this one. With the heat in Paso and the thicks skins of Aglianico, this is a grape with a future in California.
($38 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive