Paternoster
On the slopes of an extinct volcano in Italy's forgotten south, one family made Aglianico del Vulture into a benchmark red. Here's the Paternoster story, the icon bottle Don Anselmo, the one to actually drink, and how to reach one of Italy's wildest wine regions.
Ask a serious drinker to name Italy's noble reds and you'll get Barolo, Brunello, maybe Taurasi. Push a little further and the ones in the know add a fourth from a place almost nobody visits — the slopes of an extinct volcano in Basilicata, the arch of Italy's bare and beautiful south. The wine is Aglianico del Vulture, and the house that made the world take it seriously is Paternoster.
Founded in the early 20th century in the village of Barile, on the flanks of Monte Vulture, Paternoster became the reference name of one of Italy's least-known great appellations. This is Basilicata — remote, mountainous, sparsely peopled, the region that gave Italy the phrase for the forgotten deep south. And yet on the mineral-black slopes of its old volcano, the Aglianico grape makes a red as structured and ageworthy as almost anything the country produces. Paternoster is the estate that proved it, generation after generation.
Why the volcano matters
Everything here comes back to the mountain. Monte Vulture is extinct now, but its volcanic soils — rich, mineral, dark — give the wine a smoky, savoury depth that's unmistakable. The vines climb to real altitude on its slopes, and Aglianico, one of Italy's latest-ripening grapes, hangs on the vine deep into autumn to finish. The result is a red with fierce tannin, racing acidity and a long life ahead of it — the southern cousin of Barolo, drinkers like to say, and not without reason.
Aglianico del Vulture is the great red almost nobody has been to. Paternoster is the reason the wine world knows it exists at all.
Worth knowing before you buy: the estate, long family-owned, has in recent years come under the ownership of the Tommasi family of Veneto. Confirm the current framing — but the vineyards, the volcano and the grape are the constants.
The wines
A serious range, arranged in a clear climb from approachable to icon.
Start with Synthesi — the estate's more accessible Aglianico del Vulture, and the truest everyday introduction to what the volcano does: dark fruit, savoury spice, firm but friendly tannin. This is the bottle to meet the grape and the place without waiting a decade. For most drinkers it's the one to actually buy.
At the summit sits Don Anselmo — the flagship, the old-vine bottling, one of the reference wines of the entire appellation. Deep, structured, smoky and savoury, built to age fifteen or twenty years, this is the wine that argues Aglianico del Vulture belongs among Italy's noble reds. Give it time; it's not built for a Tuesday. There's a single-vineyard tier above and alongside the range too — confirm the current lineup before you shop.
The setting
This is wine country as wild frontier. Northern Basilicata around Vulture is a landscape of the extinct volcano, twin crater lakes at Monticchio, medieval villages carved into rock, and vineyards on dark volcanic slopes with the mountain always on the skyline. There is almost no wine tourism here — which is precisely the appeal for anyone who wants to feel like they've found something.
Visiting
Be honest with yourself about the logistics and you'll be richly rewarded. This is one of Italy's most remote wine regions; you'll want a car, a loose plan, and a taste for the road less travelled. Base around the Vulture villages — Barile, Rionero, Melfi with its Norman castle — and treat the wine as one thread in a genuinely off-grid southern journey.
Where the estate offers tastings, book well ahead and confirm current arrangements before you travel; access in this region is not built for drop-ins. Come in autumn, when Aglianico's very late harvest is still on the vine, and you'll have the volcano nearly to yourself.
What to buy
Match the bottle to your patience. For the wine to open now and understand the region, reach for Synthesi — the approachable face of Aglianico del Vulture, savoury and welcoming. For the icon — the wine that puts the volcano among Italy's noble reds — chase Don Anselmo from a good year and give it the fifteen years it wants. Buy one of each, drink them a decade apart, and you'll have the whole story of Italy's most overlooked great red.
Common questions
For being one of the historic benchmark producers of Aglianico del Vulture — the great red of Basilicata, grown on the slopes of the extinct Monte Vulture volcano. The estate's Don Anselmo is one of the reference bottlings of the entire appellation, and Paternoster is a big part of why serious drinkers know the region at all.
One of southern Italy's most structured, ageworthy reds — dark, savoury, firm in tannin and acidity, with a smoky, mineral edge from the volcanic soils. It's often compared to Barolo and Taurasi as one of Italy's 'noble' reds that reward serious cellaring. Aglianico ripens very late here, high on the volcano's slopes.
The estate was founded by the Paternoster family in the early 20th century and became the region's leading name over generations. In recent years it came under the ownership of the Tommasi family, the Veneto producers — confirm the current ownership and management framing before publish, as this is a recent change.
Glossary
- Aglianico del Vulture
- The DOC (with a DOCG Superiore tier) for Aglianico grown on the slopes of Monte Vulture in Basilicata. Structured, savoury, volcanic and ageworthy — one of southern Italy's noble reds, alongside Campania's Taurasi.
- Monte Vulture
- An extinct volcano in northern Basilicata whose mineral-rich slopes give Aglianico del Vulture its smoky, savoury character. Vines climb its flanks to real altitude, and the volcanic soils are central to the wine's identity.
- Aglianico
- A late-ripening, tannic, dark-skinned red grape of southern Italy, at its most serious in Basilicata's Vulture and Campania's Taurasi. Its firm structure and acidity make it one of the south's most ageworthy varieties.