Skip to main content
Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant
Toggle Navigation Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant Your Cart

2013 Alto Adige Merlot-Cabernet Sauvignon “Iugum”

Peter Dipoli
Discount Eligible $58.00
SOLD OUT

When it comes to importing wines from Italy, we tend not to go for cuvées made from internationally prevalent grapes, because the country boasts so many native varieties: Nebbiolo, Sangiovese, Rossese, Nerello Mascalese, and Nero d’Avola, to name just a few. Every once in a while, however, if the terroir has something really interesting to say and the wine is simply too good to pass up, we make an exception. Peter Dipoli’s Iugum is one of these rare bottles. From his stunning slopes near Bolzano in Alto Adige, Dipoli crafts this blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, an outstanding Italian cousin of Right-Bank Bordeaux, with fragrant aromas of black cherries, tobacco, and plums. Enjoy now through 2030.

Tom Wolf


Technical Information
Wine Type: red
Vintage: 2013
Bottle Size: 750mL
Blend: 80% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon
Appellation: Alto Adige
Country: Italy
Region: Alto Adige
Producer: Peter Dipoli
Winemaker: Peter Dipoli
Vineyard: Planted in 1992
Soil: Clay, Limestone
Aging: Wine ages in bottle until 4 years after harvest
Farming: Sustainable
Alcohol: 14.5%

More from this Producer or Region

About The Region

Alto Adige

map of Alto Adige

In the heart of the Dolomites, Alto Adige is Italy’s northernmost wine region. Having changed hands multiples times in its history between Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire (it shares a border with Austria), it boasts strong Germanic influence on its culture, language, cuisine, as well as its wines.

The mountainous geography is the principal determinant of local winemaking styles, with the high-altitude vineyards and cool Alpine climate favoring primarily crisp, racy, aromatic whites from varieties like Kerner, Sauvignon, Müller Thurgau, and Grüner Veltliner. A Mediterranean influence on climate is channeled north up the valley until Bolzano, permitting the cultivation of certain reds as well, among which Schiava, Lagrein, Pinot Nero, and Merlot fare best.

Small growers who once sold fruit to the area’s multiple co-ops are now increasingly bottling their own wines. The arrival of many quality-oriented artisans on the scene caught our eye years ago, and we now count three estates from Südtirol, as it is also known, in our portfolio. These high-acid mountain wines make for a beautifully invigorating aperitivo with thinly sliced speck, a local specialty.

More from Alto Adige or Italy

Discount Eligible $39.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $30.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $39.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $30.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $48.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $70.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $60.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $98.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $48.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $70.00
AT CART MAX
Kermit inspecting wine barrels

For the wines that I buy I insist that the winemaker leave them whole, intact. I go into the cellars now and select specific barrels or cuvées, and I request that they be bottled without stripping them with filters or other devices. This means that many of our wines will arrive with a smudge of sediment and will throw a more important deposit as time goes by, It also means the wine will taste better.