Praise For Musto Carmelitano New Releases
More praise and serious recommendations for our Italian partners — Musto Carmelitano in Basilicata is highlighted in Wine & Spirits’ top Southern Italian Indigenous Reds for 2021. It goes without saying that Musto Carmelitano is the top name for organic Aglianico in the region, and it’s heartening that the wine press is catching up to what we’ve been saying since the beginning: that the true character of Aglianico — powerful & elegant — is what Musto Carmelitano faithfully delivers.
Musto Carmelitano 2015 Aglianico del Vulture Pian del Moro
Elisabetta Musto Carmelitano is another face of the new generation coming to the fore in Basilicata. Her family had been growing grapes for four generations, making some wine but primarily selling the fruit. Elisabetta began establishing the family label in 2007 with her brother Luigi, and with the help of their father and uncle. They now farm 17 acres of vines, including the Piano del Moro plot, where vines averaging 80 years of age yielded a densely concentrated and fiercely tannic wine in the 2015 vintage. Initially reticent, the wine opens with several days of exposure to air, revealing rich blackberry fruit layered with notes of crushed herbs, the flavors sculpted by rigid mineral tannins. Hide it in the cellar for a few years to allow that intense concentration and structure to soften.
Musto Carmelitano 2016 Aglianico del Vulture Serra del Prete
The aglianico vines in Musto Carmelitano’s Serra del Prete plot average 55 years of age, and they produced a wine in the 2016 growing season that is meaty and savory, its blackberry fruit tones edged with mortared herbs and underscored by dark, schisty tannins.
Musto Carmelitano 2017 Aglianico del Vulture Maschitano Rosso
The 2017 Maschitano opens with a blast of ripe blackberry and raspberry, then takes on notes of dried plum with exposure to air. It feels broader and riper than the 2016 (also recommended), its fruit tones balanced by notes of dried herbs and a pleasant amaro bitterness.
