Purple Hands Aglianico 2024 Review
Barossa address, Italian grape, Mildura habit.
Purple Hands has won the Dr Rod Bonfiglioli Best Wine of Show at the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show in Mildura twice in three years. The first time was in 2022, with the 2021 After Five Aglianico, in a class that drew only ten entries nationwide. The second was in 2024, with the 2022 After Five Montepulciano. The Barossa is not short of things to be proud of, and Purple Hands has chosen to lead with the Italian grapes.
The winery was founded in 2006 by Craig Stansborough and Mark Slade. The home vineyard, Stansborough, covers 32 acres in the far south of the Barossa Valley on friable red clay over limestone, planted to Shiraz, Montepulciano and Aglianico. It is the cooler end of the valley, and the wines show just how good the fruit can be when it’s handled with care.
Aglianico is an ancient black grape from southern Italy, most widely planted there in Campania and Basilicata, and it makes a wine described as more rugged, darker and less red fruited than Nebbiolo. Anyone who can get their tongue around it pronounces it alli-YAN-nik-oh, which is worth practising before you order it in public, and preferably when you are sober.
The 2024 is more open than the grape's reputation suggests. Red cherry, strawberry, black cherry and mulberry lead, then bramble and pepper. Described by a reviewer far more erudite than I as delightful and instantly likeable, an unusual thing to say about a tannic southern Italian, but well earned nonetheless.
Pour it an hour early or decant it. Pasta ragu, smoked pork or beef brisket will stand up to the tannin. At $45 it costs less than most reds with reserve on the label, and has less to say about itself.
The Wine Scoffer drinks on principle. No samples were solicited. Opinions are entirely their own.
RRP $45
SA | 2024 | Barossa Valley | 13.5%
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