I bought some Cantine Antonio Caggiano Aglianico “Tarì” yesterday. This “Tarì” spelling is what is printed on the label but on reviewing Caggiano’s web site it appears that this spelling must be just for the U.S. market, or something odd has happened, since Caggiano’s web site identifies it as “Taurì” and shows that spelling clearly printed on the label (http://www.cantinecaggiano.it/en/prodotto/aglianico_irpinia_doc_tauri/). Presumably, “Taurì” makes the linkage to the Taurasi area where it was produced, so I just can’t think why Caggiano would have dropped the ‘u’ from U.S. labels. Does anybody have any idea why the spelling is different?
Just in case anybody is interested, I e-mailed Cantine Caggiano and this is their reply:
The wine is only authorised for sale in the United States as “Tari”. The U.S. is the only country that did not authorize us to call it “Taurì” because, according to them, it could be confused with Taurasi. “Tari” and “Taurì” are the same wines and it is only a matter of name.
Pretty rich for US authorities to show such concern for the Taurasi DOCG seeing as Italian and European authorities have had no qualms. Or maybe they’re simply sticking up for the US consumer? After all it was only a few decades ago US wineries happily ripped off historical European geographical names and appellations. Hurray for progress I guess. I wonder what US authorities reaction to these wines are: Irpinia DOC sottozona Campi Taurasini. Utter shock and dismay I should imagine…
Anywhoo, how is the wine? I used to quite like Caggiano’s Salae Domini bottling. It was my favorite of Caggiano’s, quite a step up from Taurì in body and depth, less tired from excessive new wood than the Taurasi. Pretty good wine that I haven’t tasted in quite a while. Used to be Aglianico Irpinia IGT, now Irpinia DOC. More precisely Irpinia DOC Campi Taurasini. Is this wine still allowed to cross sensitive US borders and confuse poor consumers??
Yes, this situation was a bit of a surprise.
Haven’t tried this wine yet. I’ve got some of the Macchia Dei Goti 2004 resting. I had some of Caggiano’s Salae Domini 2004 a few years ago when it was far too young. I found it hard to come to a firm viewpoint on the wine as I couldn’t pin down whether it came across as over-manipulated and over-oaked or not, for my tastes. Each glass seemed different, it was far too young for things to have integrated, and it may have been mildly corked.
The Federal government has to approve every label, and one of the things they look for is potentially misleading labeling. I am not sure this is an example of regulatory excess, though; what would we think of a wine from Serralunga labeled ‘Barò’?