Madonna delle Grazie 2024 'Leuconoe'

100% Aglianico

Basilicata, Italy

Medium-Body

A really fun, unique bottle, this is a white wine made from Aglianico, an inky, high tannin red variety. This wine has vibrant acidity with notes of yellow stone fruit, honey and spice.

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This whole-cluster pressed Aglianico white wine (yes, made from that deeply hued red grape with tons of tannin and acidity) is as unusual as it is special. Red grapes mostly rely on their skins for a wine’s complexity, color, and flavor. But not every red grape can make good rosé, let alone good white wine. Yet, even the greatest of red varieties would be challenged to match the complexity of this white, which demonstrates how much talent Aglianico harbors inside its thick, dark skins.

Multilayered and surprisingly complex, Leuconoe strikes with high-toned stinging acidity, softened by a back palate of nectar from the season’s first pickings of yellow stone fruits. Honey and spice are joined by a gentle hint of the beguiling smoke aroma typical in Italian wines from volcanic soils. A sublime gem of an experiment!