Parentage — A Sangiovese offspring, anciently established in Calabria
dried cherry
orange peel
rose
liquorice
sun-baked earth
Budbreak
Mid-season
Maturity
Third epoch; ripens calmly through Calabrian drought
Leaf
Medium, pentagonal, five-lobed
Bunch
Medium to large, conical, winged, fairly compact
Berry
Medium, spherical, purple-black yet lightly pigmented within
The athletes' wine. Cirò, Gaglioppo's home on Calabria's Ionian coast, stands near the site of ancient Krimisa, and legend holds that its wine was poured for victorious athletes returning from the Olympic games — a story the appellation has worn proudly ever since. The claim of continuous wine-growing on these hills is, at the least, among the oldest in Italy.
DNA has given the vine a modern pedigree: Gaglioppo is an offspring of Sangiovese, long isolated and shaped by the Calabrian heat. It behaves accordingly — pale garnet rather than opaque, thriving in drought, its wines all orange peel, dried cherry and dusty tannin. One of Italy's oldest continuous wine sites remains one of its least known.
In the blend
Share of this grape in a typical blend of each wine