Wine Review: Antonio Camillo Principio, 2008

Jan 13th, 2010 by David Flaherty

Posted in Reviews, Wine

gianpaolo says:

January 14, 2010 at 6:17 pm

Hi there, I’m Gianpaolo Paglia, partner of Antonio Camillo’s winery and owner of Poggio Argentiera winery (both in Tuscany’s Maremma). Thank you for you post about our Ciliegiolo, this is a wine that I love deeply, you should only see the vines to fall in love with it. It’s not a wine for everyone, like all serious wines, and I love its personality and its food friendliness.
Just allow me to say samething about the Ciliegiolo variety. Thanks to DNA analysis recently done on this and other Italian varieties, it is now certain that Ciliegiolo and Sangiovese are genetically related in a parent-offspring fashion, with the Ciliegiolo being most likely the father and the Sangiovese the offspring. That would mean that Ciliegiolo is a very old native variety of Tuscany, in fact older than Sangiovese, the most cultivated red variety in Italy and an icon of Tuscany wine culture. That would of course rule out the theory that Ciliegiolo has been imported more recently from Spain.
Thank you for your support, greatly appreciated by me and Antonio.
David Flaherty says:

January 15, 2010 at 12:56 am

Gianpaolo, thanks for writing in and, well, I guess that settles that and the mystery is solved. In this case, Science holds the answer. Love the Principio and keep up the great work. Maybe soon we can do the trek together…while sipping on your wine, of course…

A Taste of: Antonio Camillo Principio, 2008