Fake cork. Nose of bright red fruits, Flintstones vitamins, menthol, and with time a bit of strawberry pancake syrup. However it's juicy and somewhat fresher than expected on the palate, with great acidity and rich complexity. With air the nose grows slightly stewed and the body bulks up a few notches; at last sip this is dense stuff and downright furry with tannin. There's a lingering fruit sweetness on the finish I find slightly cloying, but this is a pretty serious little wine for $15 on release, with 3-5 years still ahead of it if the fake cork holds up. My 2/6 in this flight.

Odd nose, with mostly estery fruit and herbal notes. Seems overripe and a little roasted, with candied dark fruit and Coffee Nip (candy) flavors. With time in the glass the astringent backend tannins take over. Awkward and hard to get a read on, but I wasn't overly enamoured of what I tasted this evening. My 3/6 in this flight.

Nose of tar, cherry, menthol, mushroom. Very concentrated on the palate, with flavors following from the nose: tar, menthol, cherry syrup. The wine is dry, however, with a pleasing mouthfilling structure and plenty of astringent tannins. It is approachable now with air, but this wine wants and deserves at least 5 more years in your cellar. Very good in the "massive black hole" style of AdV. My 1/6 in this flight, by a long shot.

An odd vitamin note on the nose, with a powdery Sweet Tart quality, and some black pepper. Bit watery mouthfeel, with again vitamin-like flavors and peppery red fruit that does lack somewhat for freshness. Good concentration on the mid and back end, but despite the reasonable acidity the wine grows more tarry and tannic with air. Perhaps not a perfect bottle; cork was dried out and half-rotten, and very difficult to remove. My 5/6 in this flight.

Lifted nose, with fruity aromas that seem a little overripe, plus menthol, spice and floral tones. Sweet ripe fruit, licorice candy, fleshy and rather structured and still a bit astringent. Decidedly international and perhaps a little glitzy, but tasty nonetheless. I think this still needs 1-2 years. 90% aglianico, 10% cabernet sauvignon. My 4/6 in this flight, although I remember liking this more when tasted previously.

Nose of cheap sweet oak chips, orange peel, candied cherry. Silky and sweet in the mouth, cherry cough drops, black tea, rather candied and anonymous. Easily the cheapest-smelling and most spoofy wine of the flight. Yecch. Kind of shocking given the good press this wine gets. My 6/6 in this flight.

Nose of ripe plummy fruit, cassis, tar, mushroom, coffee. Good mouthfeel, with chewy tannin and pretty dark red fruit, lingering finish. There is a slightly confected, generic quality to the fruit here compared to the others in this flight, and a generous amount of oak, although it's better integrated than the last time I tasted this wine. Good wine, but outclassed by the Moletierri and Contrade di Taurasi. My 4/5 in this flight.

Gorgeous nose of dark-toned fruit, menthol, mushroom. Broad-shouldered and completely mouthfilling, a dark, tarry, savory beast of a wine with noticeable but well-integrated oak. Ripe, but with a dark purity missing in the Piano di Montevergine; the Moletierri also lacks that wine's obvious sheen of new oak. The 15% alcohol does not escape notice in the back of the throat. There is still a formidable wall of tannin, but plenty of animal fat should work wonders here. Excellent, if high-octane. My 1/5 in this flight.

Initially very tight aromatically, with flavors of sweet red fruit, leather, meat, and nice acidity. Very fresh and dancing on the palate, with firm but approachable tannins, very pleasant to drink.. I revisited this a couple of hours later and what a transformation -- I found the nose dominated by tar with balsamic notes, menthol, dried cherry and leather. In the mouth the wine is very heavy and tarry, with sweet cherries, astringent tannins, and much less pleasant to drink. This is considerably less advanced than a bottle consumed a couple of months back. I suspect that previous bottle was atypical and that this wine in fact still needs more time. My 2/5 in this flight.

Smoky, barnyardy nose, with a leathery, roasted hay element. But very fresh on the palate, with juicy acids. Nice, almost quaffable, but less complex than other Taurasi in this flight. My 3/5 in this flight.

Weird, closed nose, very funky. Oxidative notes of nuts and meat in broth. Dense and concentrated in the mouth, but something seems off here. Dominant fruit component is something like rotting strawberries. Very tannic. Drinkable, but not right. My 5/5 in this flight.

Pleasantly mature nose of powdery red fruit, mushroom, soy, vitamins. Pleasantly light-bodied, with leathery dark hued red fruits and dried herbs. Tannins seem to be resolved. Enjoyed the maturity here but it began to crack up after some time on the glass. My 1/5 for the flight.

Funky, barnyardy, reductive nose. Simple palate with more funky, juicy red fruits and some astringence. Fair quaffer; the brett or redution here (not sure) lends a savory quality that kind of works, although I prefer the 1997. My 2/5 for the flight.

Nose of candied black fruit, orange peel, plus some unpleasantly spoofy bruised banana and coffee aromas. Sweet palate impression, with slightly candied Froot-Juice like red fruits and licorice. Has a flat, anonymous character. I've yet to taste a red wine from Feudi di San Gregorio in 2003 that I found palatable. My 4/5 for the flight.

Smelling this wine is not unlike taking a big, ripping snortful of black pepper. The pepper follows through on the palate with Kool Aid like powdery red fruits, fresh acidity and very lightly astringent tannins. This seems to be a simple, bistro type aglianico with lower extraction. Nothing wrong with that, but the lack of structure does detract from the wine's interest -- as does the finish, with its odd prune juice-like notes reminiscent of Dr. Pepper. My 3/5 for the flight.

We finally get to the rock star, and it is sooo completely shut down. One of the more ungenerous wines I've tasted in some time. Dense, with barely a whisper of vegetality, pepper, vague dark fruit, nothing else. Depressing

Classic fresh pear, spice flavors with fine bubbles. Very gentle (brut) sweetness. A very nice Prosecco.

Aromas of charred wood, toasted hazelnut, vanilla bean, balsa wood, only somewhat integrated. Medium(-) acidity, with the mere suggestion of juicy, apple-y fruit; generally lacking verve and very much dominated by the oak treatment here (which does smell a bit expensive). Lovers of oaky chards might dig this but it seems dried out and wanting for more of its core components (fruit, minerality, acidity).