Struzziero Taurasi Reserva 1998, 1999 and 2000

In Italy, Taurasi is sometimes called "the Barolo of the south" for it's ageworthiness and structure, and maybe also because it has a cellar time of

4 years as Barolo (don't recall Taurasi riserva celler-time now) before being worthy of the name Taurasi. It's based on Aglianico grapes, a vine that has amassed on the southern-central part of Italy, manily Campania (Taurasi, Aglianico dell'Irpinia, Aglianico del taburno) and then Basilicata (Aglianico del Vulture) and some more in the nearby regions.

Aglianico is very typical, it's presence in Italy dates to the times of >magna grecia, and it's name has been interpreted in many ways, one is that it origins from the word "ellenico", which would indicates it's origin in Greece (Hellas, Ellade).

Mastroberardino has some quality bottles, alas not in the low range, theyr Radici is one of the best Taurasi arund. Many good quality Aglianico can also be taken into account: the relation between Aglianico and Taurasi is the same which occurs between Nebbiolo and Barolo, sure the better bottles are Barolo/Taurasi and not Nebbiolo/Aglianico, but sometimes the lesser brothers have swhon interesting Q/P ratios.

Thanks. I really like this wine with food. It was a different type of wine than I am used to having.

Don't really see any around here( NC )so I have to order from places in Jersey.

I have had several bottles of Taurasi from Mastroberardino over the years including their 1985 Reserva, and all have been very good to outstanding. The house has now split into two parts, - M and Terredora, with few changes. The Radici is considered the best by many. Other good sources include Feudi di San Gregorio, Gaggiano, Molettieri, and Villa Rainno. most good Taurasi from the early to mid 1990s is drinking well now. The better examples often are rather tannic when young and often need quite a while to round out, depending on your taste.

The white wines Greco di Tufo and Fiano di Avellino from Mastroberardino often are very good and are worth a try.

If you like Taurasi, you should try Aglianico di Vulture from a good producer such as Donato d'Angelo. This also is a big, firm red that can take considerable age, especially a reserva from a good year. The better early to mid 90's are often very good now.

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"cwdjrxyz" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@p59g2000hsd.googlegroups.com: .

At home, we still have a single bottle of Mastroberardino Radici Riserva

1997 Taurasi that we purchased in our honeymoon in Campania, one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Your message has just brought this to my mind and I have to decide on a date to drink it up. Thanks for that. It was quite a lot of money back in

2001 when I was not used to wines that costed about 30 euros.

Best,

S.

At one time Struzziero was imported by a company I was affiliated with--the were one of the 2 wineries exporting Taurasi an aglianico based wine. Mastrobernadino who I visited in 1985 made the best wine south of Tuscany & Umbria, but Hueblein jacked up the price and did not take care of shipping and storage well. The wines I tasted in Avellino were not the wines I sampled in DC & Maryland at trade tastings. So Struzziero cost consumers about 2/3rds of Mastro's Any folks like Winebow started importing other Taurasi in the 1990's and Mastro lost its market; At a tasting in 2002 in New York , I asked Carlo M about the competition and if they were still using their better Taurasi & Fiano as special bottlings, only allocated to "better accounts" still pushing their normale which was the Hueblein strategy. He just shrugged & and said Il Fuedo had overtaken them in export sales. The wines I tried were acceptable but the Reserve Taurasi was still great but no competition in price with Il Fuedo's best. The accountant at Hublein and their successor, Palace Brands ruined the market.

The major marketing problem for Struzziero was the very plain labels and poor POS. To sell an "off-brand" stores want attractive labels & shelf takers. Who imports them now?; I moved on from the importer because they were very slow payers of commissions and suppliers and my main interest DeGrazia told me to find them someone else.

I was a bad boy, the importer put a hold on the last check sent to DeGrazia's US importer his brother Iano. His Secretary's weekly check was also on hold, before she quit she called me to find out who should get paid besides herself--the importer was in Italy and she was authorized to have the bank release the checks. So, I called Iano DeG in the US and told him to cash the check ASAP, the importer abruptly left Italy to cover other overdue accounts. He had the money, I found out but it was drawing interest in another bank. Greedy bastard. I always got the supplier paid!

"Richard Neidich" wrote in message news:Ak6ph.9274$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net...

The bottle Opici of New Jersey is the importer.

The place I ordered from also said the importer was going to cease importing. I don't know why or any other particulars.

I know OPICI they have vast resources but unlike WineBow, DeGrazia and Paterno they keep a very low profile--I think they have wholesaler licenses in New York, NJ and Connectiticut. They have very good producers and have been importing from Italy over 60 years. They don't have a lot of POS(Point of Sale material) at least I never saw them. The MD wholesaler Mondo Vino was owned by Gino Troia and managed by me. They were going to have the Italian wines in the Winemayven portfolio and OPICI was looking for a wholesaler and we were assembling a shipment from Italy. We met with OPICI people at Cafe Troia including the gentleman who called on accounts for them and who was not an OPICI employee. Since we needed product, ordering OPICI wine from the Jersey warehouse seemed attractive. Th OPICI people were concerned that once my Winemayven wines showed up we would concentrate on those. We told them if it was in the our warehouse we'd sell no matter who supplied the wines. Later the MD-DC contractor called and expressed concern about OPICI competing with Winemayven in house. I told him if he sold Winemayven for us besides OPICI we give him a commission. Next thing I know the Regional Manager who was sweetness when we met was perturbed with my effort to get their contractor to sell my wine. Boy did I screw that up because it indicated to OPICI we would push Winemayven over them. Their condition to do business was we could sell any other Italian wines and said we'd have to double are projected order. Also I talked to other OPICI wholesalers who indicated that OPICI was very hands-on about sales and even if you had wines from other country, OPICI wanted their wines to be first, second & third priority and the contractor wanted to see sales figures for all wines and if the wholesalers sold non OPICI wines in any quantity, they hear from top OPICI bosses. Now Gino was born in Napoli and left me to handle OPICI, but they started to bug Gino too. We had made a big commitment to Winemayvens importer, based in Georgia. When I spoke to the importer's, he advised not to do business with OPICI not because of his interests but there sales philosophy, limited samples and lack of POS. They belonged to the "try it you'll like it" school of sales. Southern Italian restaurants ordered OPICI wines, without tasting or wanting to see reviews. Hearing all that we told OPICI or they told us no deal. Gino and his family were relived.

Eventually a small OPICI wholesaler in Virginia became OPICI's MD wholesaler, I believe this wholesaler served as a clearing house for OPICI---meaning the wholesaler just charged OPICI and other supplier $5-15th to warehouse, register and deliver wines sold by the contractor. This was OK with the MD comptroller's office who did not prefer the practice and audited sales from a supplier, the wholesalers inventory and retail sales reports. Only OPICI wasn't harassed by the Comptrollers Office, who feared the loss of tax revenue, when the bulk of a supplier's were stored out of state and only ordered by the wholesaler on an as needed. The Comptrollers Office preferred the supplier to be registered as a wholesaler rather then have the wine "cleared"--The supplier then pays for licenses and will have more taxable inventory in Maryland. There was one Italian-American importer who cleared wines, even though it appeared to have Mafia ties, wholesaler were heavily audited the Comptroller office. So why they gave OPICI a pass is a mystery.

My best guess of why OPICI is being dropped from Struzzero's importer, is that the OPICI operatives could be heavy handed. OPICI is known to pay suppliers promptly. It also may be OPICI dumped them due to poor sales or lack of interest by Struzzero to lower prices to OPICI or changing the wine to make it more "commercial".

When I'm on my death bed I tell more about the Mafia in the wine business.

What I'm trying to do is give you on AFW some background on the unromantic side of the biz. "Richard Neidich" wrote in message news:sAdph.12790$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net...

I would recommend you find the Taurasi from Antonio Caggiano. Excellent.

e.

Well, I have raved about it here before. Weren't you paying attention?

You guess right.

Nothing 'unusual' about this grape at all. Has been around for thousands of years. Came from Greece, probably. I've been driniking Aglianico for 30 years. Where have you been? Drinking F_____ crap?

No shit, Sherlock.

Mastroberardino.

Sounds splendid.

UC, where I live in NC there is very little Italian wines available. And until about 6 months ago most out of state retailers would not ship me---especially from NJ.

About 6 months ago Winelibrary started to ship here so I have some access to Italian now. Don't get me wrong, I was able to get large producer stuff but not 1 Taurasi in my area found at retail.

Well, you can always talk to the retailers and ask to see the catalogues or lists. Tell them to order some for you, tell them you'll take 3 or 4 bottles, and they'll usually accommodate you.