One of my favorite things about wine in general and red wine
particular is that it, more than any other beverage of the *ahem* “spiritual”
type, is contains great character. In fact, if there is one aspect of this
drink that I think is a hallmark, aside from the actual chemical properties and
taste differences, it would be this and nowhere is this more evident than in
this wondrous grape from Sicily, the Nero d’Avola. “Nero”, in this case, refers not to the
emperor, but to the black hue of this grape, which is called the most important
grape in all of Italy and is one of the more prominent indigenous ones. In my
view, it is not too distant from Syrah, which is, as noted repeatedly here in
the HSC, one of my favorites.
Here we have a study almost of contrasts, which manifests
itself in a bit of astringency, but soaking up all that sun in Sicily also
imbues it with a smoothness and depth of taste that counters that nicely.
Perhaps this wine is a metaphor for the sun itself, where gravity does battle
with the force of millions upon millions of energy discharges from fusion to
keep it functioning with just the right levels so it doesn’t fall in on itself
or give rise to a supernova, either of which would make this column and
everything else on our spectacularly colored planet academic.
Apocalyptic visions aside, for the price point, this is a
very difficult wine to beat, as is nearly every other entry on this list from
Italy, the south of which, including Sicily is itself still my most favorite
wine-producing region. This is a gorgeous wine and since evidently this is the
column where I wax metaphoric, if Sophia Loren were a wine, I’d imagine she
would look like this one: deep, rich, full-bodies, at once both sweet and wild,
subtly refined at times, beautiful, burgundy…actually, maybe not that last one
for Ms. Loren, but definitely for this wine.
I’ve never seen it on SPA, but at the fairly moderate price
this usually is at normally, it’s still a tremendous value. Lately, it’s been a
bit difficult to come by, so I suspect that others have discovered this gem. This
is a very strong entry and always enjoyable and by my accounting, a Standard.
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