Irpia Campi Taurasini ‘‘Core’ is a beautiful 2012 DOP red wine made from Aglianico grapes, the same carefully selected grapes from which Taurasi wine is made.
Aglianico wines take a long time to mature, and Agricola Bellaria has chosen the period from October to November, when extreme temperature changes between day and night allow for a range of characteristics.
The vinification process begins with identifying the best grapes to use. As for Core, the area is between Montefalcione and Taurasi, two cities in the province of Avellino, one of the few that are allowed to cultivate Aglianico.
For the production of the main wine, Agricola Bellaria decided to reduce production from the 100 tons of grapes per hectare set by the regulator to 60 tons, ensuring that only the best grapes are used for quality wine.
The process begins with hand harvesting to preserve the natural characteristics of the grapes before transferring them to the cellar. Here the grapes are lightly pressed and the resulting must is transferred to three different stainless steel tanks that use different varieties of yeast to improve the organoleptic characteristics of the grapes. The must then contacts the skins during the fermentation step.
Agricola Bellaria decided to keep the initial temperature at 30° to extract as much of the ruby red from the grapes as possible, and then lower it to 18° to restore the true aroma of the wine and keep the taste unchanged.
During fermentation, carbon dioxide escapes from the reservoir and pushes the skins of the grapes upwards, forming a compact layer known as the “cap” that forms over the must during fermentation. To prevent this from happening, the so-called felting is performed three times a day, or the action of mechanical pressure exerted from above through a piston acting on the cap in order to break it. Thus the hat falls piece by piece into the must below. Finally, proceed to the separation of the solid part of the wine from the liquid.
Before bottling, to complete the whole process, protein stabilization takes place, which lasts about 15 days, and a wine wine blend, where the wine is stored at temperatures below 0°, to ensure that the turbidity is maintained and it does not decant in the bottle.