Tuesday, January 23, 2018

A Taste of Sicily

In the not too distant past, Sicilian wines were not much to write home about; indeed, no one really wrote home about them, except perhaps to say how wasted they got on cheap plonk while stumbling around Palermo or Mt Etna or Siracusa.  And most people just associated Sicily with the Godfather movies.  How things (and the vino) have changed!  At the most recent wine dinner I conducted with a small group of friends who meet semi-regularly,  the verdict was in - perhaps the best tasting yet!  This is just anecdotal evidence of how far Sicilian wines have come, and we were sampling only the mid-range-priced wines - most for less than $20!

There are quite a few indigenous varietals on this Mediterranean island (scroll down for descriptions), and except for the Nero d'Avola-Syrah blend, we stuck to these wines for they offer such distinctive and delightful flavor profiles. (Sicily also produces its share of common noble varietals to cater to the international market.)  Between the two white wines, the Insolia was the stunner, especially for around $12 a bottle, although I also enjoyed the bright, fresh and lively Grillo as well.

Among the reds, every one seemed to have their favorite, but it seemed that the Etna Rosso and the SantAgostino made the most waves.

All wines were purchased at WineWorks in Cherry Hill, NJ, but they should also be available in PA and Delaware stores.

If you have yet to experience Sicilian fruit of the vine, you're in for a real treat!

Cincin!!

Tami’ Grillo 2015

                  
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Appellation: Terre Siciliane Indicazione Geografica Tipica (IGT)

Varietal: 100% Grillo

Production/Tasting Notes:  Direct press, then fermented and aged in stainless steel for 6 months; short maceration (1 week) then six months in stainless steel; filtered because of its young  age. The Tami project was an idea that came to me a few years ago, and that was to prove that it's possible to make good, simple, natural wine in Sicily. Tami is something I've started with some friends who own vineyards in Contrada, a district close to mine. Three years ago, we agreed we would convert their vineyards to organic viticulture. In 2009, we made the first "all grape" vinification. The goal was to take good grapes and make a simple, every day wine. There is a white, and two reds. – Ariana Occhipinti, winemaker

Food Pairings: Macaroni with fresh lemon and cream sauce; lemon chicken; walnut-rolled goat cheese with honey

Alcohol: 12.5%


Cusmano Insolia 2016

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Appellation: Terre Siciliane IGT

Varietal: 100% Insolia

Production/Tasting Notes: Cold pressing with skins and first fermentation at 8°C for around 12 hours, soft second pressing; cold decanting and fermentation at 18°-20°C; 4 months on the lees in stainless steel containers, and successive fining in the bottle; average 16 year-old vines; aromatic, displays nutty, citrusy characters with herbal notes.

Food Pairings: Risotto with mushrooms and walnuts; salmon sashimi; steamed clams with butter

Alcohol: 13%



Firiato Le Sabbie dell’Etna Etna Rosso 2013

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Appellation: Etna  Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC)

Varietals: Nerello Masacalese, Nerello Cappuccio

Production/Tasting Notes: Hand-harvested; 14-day fermentation in steel tanks; 12 months aging in durmast Slovenian casks; 6 months maturation in bottle; minerally, ripe and elegant notes unfold  into alternating intense and distinct hints of blackcurrants, prune jam, black cherries, licorice, pepper and wilted violet; palate: well-balanced and harmonious, rich, warm, refined with suave tannins; lingering aroma, juicy finish.

Food Pairings: Pigeon breasts in red-wine sauce; wild mushroom and eggplant filo parcels; linguini with tomato and clams

Alcohol: 13%

Tami’ Nero d’Avola 2016

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Appellation: Terre Siciliane IGT

Varietal: 100%  Nero d’Avola

Production/Tasting Notes: One week maceration on skins; fermented and aged in stainless steel for 6 months; see below for further tasting notes under Nero d’Avola

Food pairings: Chicken salad with pomegranate, pinenuts and raisins (rosé)
Caramelized barbecued pork patties (bun cha)
Charcoal-grilled rump steak

Alcohol: 13%


Valle dell’Acate Cerasuolo di Vittoria 2013

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Appellation : Cerasuolo di Vittoria Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) (Sicily’s first DOCG)

Varietal: 60% Nero d’Avola, 40% Frappato

Production/Tasting Notes: Fermented using indigenous yeast in stainless steel; aging: combination of stainless steel (for Frappato) and oak (for Nero d'Avola) for 12 months, and an additional nine months in bottle; delicately smoky aromas of red fruits, plum, camphor and herbs, lifted by a bright floral nuance (Frappato); plush and gentle, plum and black cherry flavors (Nero d’Avola); firm, fine-grained tannins. (Alternate take: fresh berry, rose-petal and citrus character with green-tea undertones?)

Alcohol: 13.5 %


Firiato Santagostino Baglio Soria 2011

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Appellation: Sicilia IGT

Varietals: Nero d’Avola, Syrah

Production/Tasting Notes: 10-day fermentation in steel tanks; malolactic fermentation; 8 months aging in American durmast barriques; 6 months maturation in bottle; well-defined nuances of marasca cherries, wild berries, rhubarb, cloves, aromatic herbs and prunes that alternate and blend with charming hints of licorice, ink and tobacco leaves; on the palate suave, soft and caressing; silky, fine tannins.

Food pairings: Sicilian eggplant and tomato stew (caponata)
Braised pork knuckle
Chilli con carne

Alcohol: 14.5%

Factoids about Sicilian Wines

There is evidence of vine training and wine production from the earliest settlements of the Phoenicians on Sicily’s west coast and the Greeks on Sicily’s east coast from the eighth century B.C.
The Greek colonists brought their cultivated knowledge of vine training and winemaking to southern Italy and Sicily beginning with their earliest settlements.
Thomas Jefferson procured a 400-liter barrel that of Woodhouse’s Marsala wine for his Monticello wine cellar through the office of the U.S. secretary of the navy.
Before the 1950s there were few producers of quality wine in Sicily.
In 1985, Diego Planeta assumed a role that put him at the center of the Sicilian style and quality revolution of the 1990s when became president of the Istituto Regionale della Vitee del Vino (IRVV, “Regional Institute of Vine and Wine”).
From about 1995 to 2005, private Sicilian companies rapidly developed quality bottled wine for the international market.
A Sicily-wide IGT, Sicilia IGT, was created in 1995. By the end of the 1990s, Sicilia IGT wines, many featuring Nero d’Avola, increasingly dominated the sold-by-the-bottle market. As of 2008 more than 25 percent of all Sicilian wine, bulk and otherwise, was bottled at the IGT level, and Sicilia IGT was and remains by far the largest category of Sicilian bottled wine. In 2011, it was promoted to DOC status.

  • Terre Siciliane is the region-wide IGT title for the island of Sicily. It was created in November 2011, to take the place of the erstwhile 'Sicilia IGT', which had just been promoted to DOC status (as Sicilia DOC). The name Terre Siciliane translates literally as 'Sicilian lands'.  In keeping with the stylistic freedom of the IGT category, Terre Siciliane IGT wines can be made in virtually any style: red, white or rosé, still or sparkling, dry or sweet. Naturally, given Sicily's strong focus on its traditional grape varieties, the likes of Catarratto, Grillo, Inzolia, Nero d'Avola and Nerello Mascalese will feature strongly in wines produced under the title. But the island is also known for its focus on the international wine market, and thus the 'international' grape varieties (e.g. Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay), so these will also make up an important part of the Terre Siciliane wine portfolio over time.





Indigenous Grape Varieties of Sicily

Whites

CATARRATTO-  The wine’s color is pale straw yellow with green tints. It smells mildly fruity and has notes of fresh straw. Compared to other white varieties, Catarratto makes wine with moderate alcohol levels and high acidity. The wine has a bitterness that is slight but noticeable, particularly at the back of the palate. This induces winemakers to blend in other varieties with a softer character. Inzolia is Catarratto’s traditional blending partner.

INZOLIA (INSOLIA) -Inzolia (or Ansonica) is an Italian grape variety grown in both Sicily and Tuscany. While it is most famous traditionally as an ingredient in the fortified Marsala wines, it is now seen more and more as a crisp, dry white wine, in blends and as a single variety. Inzolia wines are moderately aromatic, and tend to display nutty, citrusy characters with herbal notes.
     The grape has a long and complicated history. It is thought to have originated on the island of Sicily, and is related to other Sicilian natives like Grillo and Nerello Mascalese, but other sources have argued that Inzolia is related to the Roditis and Sideritis grape varieties of Greece. A grape that goes by the name Irziola is mentioned by Pliny the Elder in Naturalis Historia, but there is no evidence to suggest this is the same variety.
     Today, Inzolia is found across Sicily, particularly in Palermo and Agrigento. It is permitted as a blending grape in many of the island's DOC appellations, adding a nutty weight to wines made with Catarratto and Grillo. Inzolia's tendancy to lose acidity late in the season means that it has long been a building block of Marsala wines, but improved winemaking techniques and a change in fashions has seen Inzolia's place in Sicilian winemaking change significantly.

GRILLO - a Sicilian white grape variety most famous for its role in the island's fortified Marsala wines (Grillo, Catarratto, and Inzolia make up the base wine of Marsala.)
 It is still widely planted on Sicily despite Marsala's fall from fashion, and is now used most commonly in a variety of still white wines, both varietal and blended. Grillo, when vinified to a high standard, makes a fresh, light white wine with nutty, fruit-driven flavors that include lemon and apple.
     There is some debate as to the origins of Grillo, as its earliest mention comes as recently as the mid-19th Century. Some believe that the variety is native to Sicily, suggesting it is the progeny of Catarratto and Muscat of Alexandria. Others have hypothesized that it was brought to the island from the southern Italian region of Puglia. There is even some evidence to suggest that this was the variety in the Roman wine Mamertino, a particular favorite of Julius Caesar.
Grillo is well suited to the hot, dry Sicilian climate. Its high levels of sugar and the ease with which it oxidizes make it a good option for fortification. Unfortunately, Sicily's other great white contender, Catarratto, yields more highly and so became the preferred choice for Marsala, which led to a decline in plantings of Grillo in the 20th Century.
     Happily, as focus has shifted from quantity to quality, Sicilian producers are beginning to revisit and replant Grillo, particularly as viticultural and vinicultural techniques have improved. Winemakers are now able to control thiols more easily, giving Grillo wines with more pleasant, fruit-driven aromas rather than the rather more earthy styles that were previously available. Some commentators have suggested that this is not a true expression of the variety.
     Grillo has become a viable contender for the quintessential Italian table white: light, easy-drinking and often associated with very good value. In this regard it competes with Soave, Gavi and IGT Pinot Grigio.

GRECANICO- Though Grecanico wine lacks aroma, in the mouth it is firm, elegant, and never top-heavy with alcohol, with moderate to high levels of acidity. As a means of lightening and livening up high-alcohol, low-acid white wines, Grecanico could have an important role in Sicily’s future.


Reds

NERO D’AVOLA- the most important and widely planted red wine grape variety in Sicily. Vast volumes of Nero d'Avola are produced on the island every year, and have been for centuries. The dark-skinned grape is of great historical importance to Sicily and takes its present-day name from the town of Avola on the island's southeast coast. The area was a hotbed of trade and population movement during the Middle Ages and Nero d'Avola was frequently used to add color and body to lesser wines in mainland Italy.
     Translated, Nero d'Avola means "Black of Avola", a reference to the grape's distinctive dark coloring, but its exact origins are the subject of debate. The region of Calabria can lay claim to the variety via its synonym Calabrese (meaning "of Calabria"), though this term may be a derivation of Calaurisi, an ancient name for someone from Avola.
     For most of the 20th Century, Nero d'Avola was used as a blending grape and the name very rarely appeared on wine labels. By the turn of the 21st Century, however, the grape's fortunes had changed considerably, and it is now common to find Nero d'Avola produced as a varietal wine as well. It is often compared to Syrah because it likes similar growing conditions (Sicily has a hot Mediterranean climate) and exhibits many similar characteristics.
     Depending on production methods, Nero d'Avola can be made into dense and dark wine that is stored in oak barrels and suitable for aging, or young and fresh wines. Younger wines show plum and juicy, red-fruit flavors, while more complex examples offer chocolate and dark raspberry flavors. The wine typically has vivid blackberry smells. In the mouth, it has moderate to high alcohol, but its most outstanding characteristic is the high acidity that balances the otherwise soft texture.

NERELLO MASCALESE- a highly regarded, dark-skinned grape variety that grows most commonly on the volcanic slopes of Mount Etna in Sicily. Its wines, which have had a rapid upsurge in popularity in the last decade, have a tendency to reflect their surroundings, giving taut, fresh red wines with fruity, herbaceous flavors, excellent minerality and an earthy nuance. Nerello Mascalese wines often have a perfume reminiscent of those of the noble wines of Barolo and Burgundy.
     The variety takes its name from the Mascali plain between Mount Etna and the coast where it is thought to have originated – a small portion of older vines predate the phylloxera epidemic of the 1880s. The prefix Nerello (“little black one”) refers to the black color of the grapes, and is shared by Nerello Cappuccio, Nerello Mascalese's most common blending partner. Both grapes are found in Etna DOC wines, with Nerello Mascalese making up the bulk of the blend and easily surpassing plantings of Nerello Cappuccio.
     The hugely variable volcanic soils of Etna combined with elevations of up to 1000m above sea level – some of the highest vineyards in Europe – help produce wines with immense character and complexity, and without the excessive weight that often characterizes Sicilian red wines from lower altitudes. Nerello Mascalese is a late-ripening variety, and most vines are trained in the traditional bush-vine method, which works well in the terroir.
     Nerello Mascalese vines also dominate the neighboring Faro DOC surrounding the port city of Messina. Set in the hills above the city, vineyards reach impressive altitudes here too, if not quite the dizzying heights of Etna.
     Outside the two aforementioned DOCs, Nerello Mascalese is used in a variety of blends under the Sicilia IGT banner, often alongside the island's dominant Nero d'Avola grape variety. These wines are most often red, but rosé (rosato) is also made. Across the Strait of Messina in Calabria, the DOCs of Lamezia, Sant'Anna di Isola Capo Rizzuto, and Savuto permit the use of the variety in their respective blends.
     The wine is pale cherry red, with aromas of flowers, particularly violets, red fruit, tobacco,and spices, and in the mouth it is lean, with moderate alcohol, high sourness, and moderate astringency. In appearance the wine is very close to Pinot Noir.

NERELLO CAPPUCCIO - Nerello Cappuccio, or Nerello Mantellato, owes its name to the strange shape of its leaves, resembling a cloak (“Cappuccio” means hood in Italian, “Mantello” means cloak). A monovarietal Nerello Cappuccio is medium-dark red in hue and offers aromas and soft flavors reminiscent of ripe red cherry, vanilla, minerals and light coffee; Nerello Cappuccio wines usually have tougher tannins too and a slightly coarser quality to them.
     A dark-skinned grape variety from Sicily, most famous for its application in the red wines of Etna and Faro. It is rarely found as a varietal wine, and usually plays second fiddle to its cousin Nerello Mascalese, which is more numerous in plantings and considered to be of a higher quality. On its own, Nerello Cappuccio makes a wine that is soft and richly colored, with some cherry flavors on the palate.
     The variety thrives in the volcanic soils of Mount Etna, particularly at higher altitudes. Here, the combination of soil and climate result in elegance and structure in the wines. It ripens slightly earlier than Nerello Mascalese, and buds reasonably early; spring frost can sometimes be an issue. However, Nerello Cappuccio is capable of reaching higher-than-average acidity and has plenty of tannin, making it a good choice for vinification.
     Nerello Cappuccio lends its color and perfume to Etna's blended wines, as well as softening out some of Nerello Mascalese's harder edges (see Nerello Cappuccio – Nerello Mascalese blend). These wines often have an evocative perfume, sometimes likened to those of the noble wines of Barolo and Burgundy. There are a few varietal examples of Nerello Cappuccio made in Sicily, but the grape's long-standing reputation as a blending variety mean these have only started to appear in the last couple of decades. These are mostly labeled under the Sicilia IGT title, as are the few rosato examples.

FRAPPATO - a light-bodied red grape widely grown on the southeastern coast of Sicily.  Cherry-colored, aromatic and low in tannins, varietal Frappato wines are light bodied and slightly reminiscent of good Beaujolais. The wines are pale cherry red and lightly structured, very spicy and floral, and loaded with vivid cherry and pomegranate fruitiness.  However, Frappato is found in more blended wines than varietal examples, and this is where the variety really shines.
     Nero d’Avola is its prime blending partner, because of its complementary bodyweight and concentration of color; the two varieties combine to produce a red wine that is typically designed for short-to-medium term cellaring. Frappato wines may also be blended with Nerello Mascalese, Nerello Cappuccio and Nocera.

Wine Quote:
A lot of people say, “I don’t know much about wine, but I know what I like.” Maybe you don’t know what you like, because you just keep drinking the same style. The wine world is pretty vast and diverse, and it’s not marriage. You don’t have to be faithful to one style. So don’t impose your comparatively limited experience on every wine you encounter. Try to understand wine styles you’re not familiar with.
- Kermit Lynch, Wine Merchant & Connoisseur