2021 Joaquin - Campania Aglianico I Viaggiatori (750ml)

Joaquin is the personal project of Raffaele Pagano, a fourth-generation heir to his family's large Salerno-based wine business who chose a very different path. Rather than continuing the family's high-volume operation, Pagano makes a mere eighteen thousand bottles a year from three and a half hectares scattered across Irpinia and Capri, working with old vines according to his own vision. His wines have earned a reputation for revealing something unfamiliar yet true about Campania's native varieties.

I Viaggiatori comes from an extraordinary parcel of ungrafted, pre-phylloxera Aglianico vines between 150 and 200 years old, trained high and spaced widely in the commune of Paternopoli, within Taurasi's coolest southern subzone. In vintages when Pagano doesn't bottle a full Taurasi DOCG, this fruit goes instead into this declassified wine. After a fifteen-day maceration in old open-top wooden casks, the wine ages in used oak barrels, a gentler approach meant to favor freshness and finesse over sheer power.

The 2021 shows dark cherry and blackberry fruit layered with violet, spice, and a hint of camphor, framed by juicy acidity and firm, still-tightening tannins that give way to notes of black tea and licorice on the finish. It pairs naturally with lamb, game, or a hearty beef stew.