Gaglioppo

Gaglioppo is Calabria's signature red wine grape and the heart of Cirò, the most famous wine of Italy's deep south. It makes structured but relatively pale reds — often more ruby-garnet than dark — that are unusually aromatic for their colour, leading with red cherry, wild strawberry and dried herbs over a savoury, faintly bitter finish. Despite its pale, thin-skinned hue the grape carries firm, dusty tannin and bright acidity, and it ripens to high alcohol in the hot, dry Ionian hills. Long dismissed as rustic and oxidative, it has been revived in recent decades into a fresher, more perfumed style, and it is increasingly seen as one of southern Italy's most distinctive native reds.