MARIA CAROLINA 2011 Pallagrello Bianco

ALEPA Winery

Here is a wine which disappointed me greatly for two reasons. The first one is that when we visited ( October 2017) the small winery Alepa in the Caiazzo area ( in Caserta Province ) the land of the Pallagrello grapes , the winery owner Paola and his friend Raffaele ( who turned out to be the owner of the acclaimed Joaquin winery )  were great hosts . They invited us to enjoy a great pasta dish made with  fresh tomatoes and then a taste of their local cheeses. Truly a  friend making experience. We also tasted some of the Joaquin new realeses ( a detailed description and notes on his wine on a different blog sometime in the future).

From their beautiful estate we could watch in awe the landscape made of rolling hills with a view of the Taburno montain in the Benevento province.  The second is that I

offered to buy few bottles of her wines to taste them in the future. The wines were expensive.

Well here is the opportunity to taste the flagship wine called Maria Carolina based on the pallagrello bianco grape.. typical of the area. First thing to note is the vintage of the wine 2011... Shame on me not having noticed that. Pallagrello bianco ( although with a natural good acidity) is not a wine that could be aged for this long. So after reading the vintage i was not shocked to notice a wine with a deep color of yellow ( going to brown ( the final sign of death for a  young wine) and golden highlights , a medium high viscosity ( 13.5-14% abv) .. which is high for a white wine. The wine also showed the presence of unknown particles ( not necessarily a bad thing). The nose just presented me with an highly oxydized wine , with not reminescence of what once was some fruit bouquet. The palate confirmed the nose with a Sherry like  wine ( due to oxidization) ... A wine that could be drank by peole who loves and overly aged wines.... why selling it to me ???