AGLIANICO

Reviews of 2021 Aglianico:

Bushing King, Best Wine of the Show, McLaren Vale Wine Show 2022
Best Single Vineyard Wine, McLaren Vale Wine Show 2022
Best Mediterranean Red Variety, McLaren Vale Wine Show 2022

17+ points, Max Allen, Jancis Robinson, October 2023: :
"Planted in the late 2000s, Hither & Yon’s Aglianico is, according to Richard Leask, the ‘most hand-pampered variety in the vineyard, with a tendency to big yields’. The pampering clearly pays off: this vintage won the trophy for best wine at the 2022 McLaren Vale Wine Show. Unlike all the other reds from H&Y, this doesn’t have immediate obvious fruit; instead, it saves its charms for when it’s safely on the tongue, where it unfurls layers and layers of deeply subtle red fruit and long, grippy, savoury tannins."

Reviews of 2019 Aglianico:

93 points, Sam Kim, Wine Orbit:
"It's immediately appealing on the nose with dark cherry, smoked game, olive and spicy oak characters. The palate delivers excellent weight and silky flow, wonderfully framed by fine grainy tannins, making it sturdy and robust with a persistent enticing finish. At its best: now to 2033."

87 points, Halliday Companion 2022, Ned Goodwin:
"Ascendancy is incremental here, with small details improved each year. Hand picked, a longer maceration, a judicious meld of whole berries, crushed material and a dollop of whole bunches, and larger French oak, noted. A mid ruby. Notes of tobacco leaf, sour red fruits and verdant herb. Seems to have been picked on acidity, rather than ripeness. Decent drinking, but better with more weight and ripeness." 

Reviews of 2018 Aglianico:

91 points, James Suckling 2021, Nick Stock:
"Plenty of spices on the nose, such as cinnamon and anise, with ripe plum and blood orange, as well as berry biscuit and brown tea. The palate has fine but assertive tannins that have been gently cut to deliver a crisp finish with bright red-cherry flavor. "

90 points, Halliday Companion 2022, Ned Goodwin:
"Hand picked and fermented with 10% each whole berries and whole bunches. Brooding, compact and forceful. Reliant on a phalanx of tobacco-crusted tannins, both as homage to great Campanian expressions as much as a savoury lance, fending off excess. Damson plum, cherry pith, mint and agrodolce scents. " 

Reviews of 2017 Aglianico:

91 points, Mike Bennie, The Wine Front:
"Strawberry chocolate and mint bouquet. Wild! Game meat in the mix of that unusual perfume combo, flavours do the same, it feels wide and loose but tannin comes late and rumbles. Mad style this. Kind of all over the place, great to sip on, I like the mojo, but expect something different."

90 points, James Suckling:
"There's a fresh, red plum and berry nose here with an earthy, savoury edge on the palate, as well as ripe, gently sinewy tannins."

Reviews of 2016 Aglianico:

92 points, James Halliday 2020 Wine Companion
"Kind of leathery, kind of chocolatey, kind of berried. The net effect is pleasant plus. Firm, graphite-infused tannin and an impressive push of flavour through the finish add up to a wine worthy of respect."

Reviews of 2015 Aglianico:

93 points Decanter, Sarah Ahmed:
"This is a compellingly savoury, brawnier take on another southern Italian grape. Long and textural, with blackberry, salted black olives, leather, violets, bitter chocolate and wormwood."

Reviews of 2014 Aglianico:

Decanter World Wine Awards. May 2016. www.decanter.com 93 points.
"Black plum, lots of spice and a touch of leather. Lovely structure, fresh acidity, firm tannins, raspberry notes and a long savoury finish."

Campbell Mattinson. September 2016. www.thewinefront.com.au 90 points.
"An interesting wine from an interesting producer. Volcanic rocks. It’s an odd descriptor and I cannot profess to have licked too many, but taste this wine and the volcanic rock descriptor springs to mind. Such is wine. Such perhaps is the power of suggestion. This is ferrous and cherried, has a flash of garden herbs, and while light in both colour and flavour, it makes an impression. Something different in a good way. I can’t promise that you’ll taste ‘volcanic rocks’ too, but you will see that the flavour profile here rushes outside the norm."

Stuart Robinson. December 2016. www.thevinsomniac.com 91 points.
"Savoury, of ash and bloodstock, liquorice; there's florals in the mix too, wild herbs. Light, airy, has the pumice stone lightness often seen in volcanic reds; red fruit, raspberry and cherry, juicy flowing length. Such a delicious consistency to this portfolio. Beautiful to drink."

Reviews of 2013 Aglianico:

Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show, Novbember 2015.
Gold Medal.

Sarah Ahmed. October 2015. The Wine Detective. www.thewinedetective.co.uk
"It’s a favourite grape which I sort of bunch together with Piedmont’s Nebbiolo and Portugal’s Baga – capable of wonderful aromatics and butch tannins – hopefully with enough fruit to join the dots between nose to tail. Very spicy with leather and inky florals to its plum and red berry fruit; ripe but present tannins and persistent acidity make for a well disciplined, serious finish. 12.6%"

Andrew Graham. June 2015. Australian Wine Review. www.ozwinereview.com 93 points
"Of all the new generation Mediterranean red grapes to come our way, I've got to pick Aglianico as one of my favourites. Too get this much structure and flavour at 12.6% alcohol suggests that Aglianico might like it in McLaren Vale too. Bright plum red; the nose has a soft red fruit fragrance - there's a reference on the back label to 'pink marshmallow' which I think is great. Sappy, dry palate is framed with tannins - bitter, mouth-cleansing, proper tannins. Complement that with some cherry red fruit late juiciness and you've got frankly one utterly delicious, dry and savoury red. Massive yes."

Tony Love. June 2015. The Advertiser - Taste. 4 and 1/2 Stars out of 5.
"Ripping along with its mix of earthy herbs, anise-led spices and classic trio of cherry, plum and raspberry fruits, all slammed in there with a lightness of being; and fine medium bodied flow. Speaks lucidly of its origins and its new home - a delightful drink."

Gary Walsh. May 2015. www.thewinefront.com.au 91 points
"Such a good grape Aglianico. I’m betting we’re going to see much more if it grown locally in the coming years. This is a good go at Aglianico. Cherry and juicy raspberry, liquorice, that typical, for want of better words, ‘volcanic rocks’ character that this grape often has, plus maybe some flowers. Medium bodied, well etched acidity and dry tannin almost scrapes it along the palate (in a good way), and bright juicy fruit, aromatic herbs and dusty tannin close it out. Refreshing style with a bit of complexity. In some ways, not an easy wine to rate, though it’s certainly easy to recommend."

Stuart Robinson. May 2015. www.thevinsomniac.com 90 points.
"Licorice root, amaro/bitter wood and herb - deliciously savoury with a dark undercurrent. Fruit, by way of cherry and plum, with a moreish tang and juiciness. That black edge reappears on the back palate - a little licorice root against the lighter touch of raspberry over spice."

James Halliday. July 2015. www.thewinecompanion.com.au 90 points
"Light, bright colour; a lively, indeed wild, ride: there's a lot of red fruits criss-crossed by herbs and brisk acidity."