The Winery

The wine gods (Dionysus? Bacchus?), were certainly watching over us the day we arrived in the sleepy town of Verosa in Basilicata. Our objective was to spend a few days exploring the wine of Vulture and when our accommodations did not work out, we stumbled across Tenuta Lagala, an Agritourismo situated on the edge of town. To be clear, Tenuta Lagala is a full-fledged integrated farm with livestock, multiple agricultural products, olive groves and of course vineyards. The biodiversity was brilliant, and it would be our home base for the next two days. We enjoyed a lovely lunch at their inhouse restaurant and honestly took the wait staff by surprise when we requested a glass of everything offered. The range of wines was impressive, and we laughed at our good fortune as we realized that we just found our new Vulture producer.

Historically characterized as overly tannic and over oaked with high alcohol, the Basilicata’s Vulture Aglianico based reds have experienced a true renascence over the past decade with the quality improving leaps and bounds. Much of this revitalization, as was noted by our hosts Angelica and Arnardo Lagala, was due to better vineyard and cellar practices. Indeed, the farm has been in Arnardo’s family for generations and he has worked his vineyards his entire life. All farming employs organic methods with the end goal of ensuring sustainability for future generations. Cellar work is a combination of traditional and modern practices with the use of barrique both new and 2nd passage.

Vulture’s unique terroir is based on a combination of volcanic soils, altitudes varying from 200-600 metres, cold autumn nights and the breezes that gently blow across the vineyard slopes, helping to shrug off the dangers of botrytis and downy mildew. Vulture’s sponge-like volcanic tufo helps the roots of the vine to penetrate deep into the earth below, nourishing the vine with the moisture retained by the rock in the warm, dry summers that characterise this arid region.

Sometimes the wine story simply begins without anything to do with wine. Sometimes synchronicity works it’s magic and with good fortune the “wine gods” step in to intervene.