Tombacco Biferno Rosso Riserva 2020

The Land

Molise only became a region in its own right in 1963, split off from Abruzzo, and it is still the one Italian wine region most drinkers have never knowingly tasted. It is also almost entirely vertical: 55% mountain, 45% hill, essentially no flat land. Biferno DOC, established in 1983, follows the valley of the Biferno river through the province of Campobasso, running down from the Apennines to the Adriatic, and the rules cap red-grape plantings at 500 meters. Vineyards sit between roughly 200 and 500 meters on limestone and clay, with calcareous-marly and siliceous clay soils on the better hillsides. Inland the climate is semi-continental, with cold winters and hot summers that push sugar accumulation; nearer the coast the sea moderates it. That altitude is what keeps acidity in a Montepulciano grown this far south.

The Wine

Biferno Rosso Riserva 2020 is 80% Montepulciano and 20% Aglianico, which sits at the top of the range the DOC permits for Montepulciano and inside the 15 to 20% window for Aglianico. The pairing is the point: Montepulciano brings depth, dark fruit and soft tannin, while Aglianico supplies the acid spine and the tannic grip Montepulciano does not have on its own. Fermentation is temperature-controlled at 25 degrees Celsius, with the bulk of the maceration concentrated in the first three to four days, followed by malolactic. Aging runs a minimum of 36 months split between stainless steel and 500-liter tonneaux, well past the Riserva requirement, and the wine will hold six years and more. Alcohol is 14%. Black cherry and plum, then cinnamon, sweet spice and integrated wood, with a full, round, velvety mouth and fine tannin.

The People

Rinomata Cantina Tombacco is not a Molise estate. The house is based in Trebaseleghe, in the province of Padova, and was founded in 1919 by Giovanni Battista Tombacco as a peach farm, converted to vines when he decided the land suited the grape better. He and his wife Marcella raised eleven children in the business. His eldest son Bruno drove the expansion of the 1950s; Giuliano, the youngest, took over in 1972; Andrea and Cristian Tombacco have been active since 2005, the third generation. The family works across Italian regions, bottling from zones it believes are underread, and calls Biferno a native wine brought back into circulation. For Molise, that is a fair account of what has happened to the appellation.

Food Pairing

This wants slow-cooked red meat. Beef braised with tomato, bay and a few cloves of garlic, the sauce spooned over polenta, meets the wine's weight without needing more tannin. Lamb shoulder rubbed with rosemary and roasted until it pulls apart gives the Aglianico acidity something to cut. Grilled sausage with bitter greens and chili works for the spice and wood. Finish with aged Pecorino, where the salt lifts the cherry. At this price it is the house red you buy by the case and stop thinking about.