Salice Salentino, Puglia, Italy
Since the early 1980s, Cosimo Taurino’s Salice Salentino has been one of the world’s greatest wine values – and a perennial staff favorite. Back in our market after a long, much-lamented absence, Taurino’s single-vineyard Negroamaro Notarpanaro firmly reestablishes the Taurino legend. Translucent black ruby, Taurino’s 2010 Notarpanaro blossoms with air to reveal warm, inviting aromas of wild cherries, black plums, tobacco, and sappy herbs. On the palate, Taurino’s 2010 Notarpanaro conveys a kernel of chewy, saturated cherry, and cassis fruit complemented by fine, mounting tannins and complex undertones of leather, tobacco, and limestone minerality. After coating the palate with its dense fruit and tarry, earthy notes, the Notarpanaro counters it with freshening acidity and finishing dashes of black plum, bay leaf, blood orange, and dusty limestone minerals. The wine’s spicy, balanced, soil-infused finish lingers and begs you to take another bite of pizza Margherita; pasta in a sun-dried tomato, pine nut, and olive oil sauce; and grilled sausages. Taurino’s Notarpanaro is back and more serious than ever. And as always, it’s a terrific value.
