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These producers and wines are extracted from my tasting feature "Spotlight
on Sicilian wines," where you'll find more reviews and generic info:
click here.
Abbazia Santa Anastasia
This very old estate - dating from the early 12th century according
to their website (I think: the English version isn't live yet and my
Italian is extremely limited) - was transformed into a modern winery in
1980 by Francesco Lena. It's located in the historic town of Castelbuono near the coast to the east of Palermo.
Their wines are sold in Lea & Sandeman shops in London, and they have a
dedicated importer into the US and Canada based in Milan (more details on
their site below). I tasted these two seductive reds on the Sicilian stand at the London Wine fair
in May 2010:
2007 Passomaggio
Nero d'Avola
+ Merlot - lovely ripe black cherry nose with resin
and raisin edges; savoury
leather touches on the palate with firm backdrop then tasty "sweet" fruit and a
bit of oomph. 89+
2006 Montenero Nero d'Avola
+ Merlot + Cabernet Sauvignon - darker profile still with raisin and black olive
notes; very rich vs very firm mouth-feel, spicy and punchy finish. Wow.
90+
www.abbaziasantanastasia.it
 Baglio del Cristo di Campobello di Licata
Or
Cristo di Campobello for short, was established in 2000 by
Angelo, Domenico and Carmelo Bonetta taking in
30 ha (75 acres) of sweeping vineyards planted on the hills around
Campobello di Licata, east of Agrigento and a little
inland of the south-central
coast. It looks like well-known wine consultant Riccardo Cotarella works
for them, seeing as he's signed off the tasting notes on their wines on
their not very informative (but very dramatic) website: more info when I
get it! These three were sampled
on at the London Wine fair
in May 2010:
2008
Adènzia white (Chardonnay/Grillo) - pity about that
intrusive toasty/dirty? wood, as this has intriguing white fruit character with
minty tones; quite rich and rounded followed by nuttier finish, again that funny
wood lingers too.
2007
Adènzia red (Nero d'Avola / Syrah
/ Cabernet
Sauvignon) - "sweet" vs smoky notes with red
pepper edges; again pretty concentrated with solid chunky palate vs lush
prune-y fruit and tobacco tones, a touch overdone perhaps yet "impressive."
88+
2008 "CDC" (Nero d'Avola / Syrah
/ Cabernet
Sauvignon / Merlot) - similar dark cherry aromas with smoky
resin and wild herbs; delicious dried fruit profile, very concentrated with lush
rounded mouth-feel vs attractive solid tannins and weight. 92+
www.cristodicampobello.it
Murgo
Owned by the Scammacca del Murgo family, whose San Michele wine estate
touches the eastern slopes of Mount Etna between Taormina and Catania; and
they also grow olives and fruit (for making jam) on orchards lying on
Etna's southern slopes. Particularly notable perhaps is that they appear to
be one of few (perhaps the only?) producers making traditional method
sparkling wines in Sicily, and good ones at that. And in their case, only "Blanc de
Noir" styles i.e. made from red grapes, the local local Nerello
Mascalese variety (it seems you only find it in the Etna area). They also use the
"other" Nerello Mantellato, or sometimes Cappuccio just to avoid
confusion, in the blend for their regular red wine, which, as stated
below, is certainly worth trying although not to everyone's taste. I
also tried these at the London Wine fair in May 2010:
2007 Brut Método Classico (Nerello
Mascalese) - attractive lightly yeasty/toasty nose;
shows a touch of richness and class with refreshing tang on the finish. Nice
"Blanc de Noir Cava" style! 85+
2009
Etna Bianco (Caricante/Catarrato) - enticing banana and honeysuckle aromas; floral
vs exotic palate with a hint of yeast-lees "fatness" vs again
refreshing finish. 85+
2008 Etna Rosso (Nerello
Mascalese/Nerello Mantellato) - pretty smoky and rustic vs
ripe dried red fruits and perfumed wild herby minty edges; gripping tannins and farm-y finish, but
it's still quite interesting!
www.murgo.it
 Brugnano
The Brugnano family (photo) is based in Partinico,
where the winery was established back
in 1970. Their vineyards lie between Palermo and
Trapani in the Castellammare del Golfo region, and are home to
local and "international" varieties including Tannat (surprisingly) in addition to the more usual suspects
(Syrah, Merlot, yawn...). Having said that, it
was their Lunario 100% Nero d'Avola that really caught my attention
on the Sicilian stand at the London Wine fair
in May 2010:
2009 Kue Insolia/Viognier - nice floral
and "mineral" notes vs peach
and pineapple; attractive juicy fruit with a bit of weight and body vs zesty
"chalky" finish. 85+
2009 V90 Catarrato - similar
profile,
although nuttier and more floral with leaner mineral finish; and easier-going too.
80-85
2007 Lunario Nero d'Avola -
maturing savoury aromas underpinned by ripe resin-y dark cherries, raisins and
black olives; lush and quite concentrated with spicy and wild herb tones,
delicious finish with nice grip vs dried fruit. 90-92
www.brugnano.eu
 Casa di Grazia
Angelo and Maria Grazia di
Francesco have 40 ha (100 acres) of windswept
vineyards, mostly planted with
Nero d'Avola, Syrah and
Inzolia, around the town of Gela on the south side of the island near
Lake Biviere (pic: from
www.sicilyinfotourist.com).
These 3 wines were sampled
on the Sicilian stand at the London Wine fair
in May 2010:
2009 Zahora Grillo -
delicious exotic honeyed notes vs zesty citrus edges; peachy and a tad
oily/creamy, quite concentrated then zingy finish. 87+
2008 Gradiva Nero d'Avola -
appealing soft-ish, ripe red and black fruit combo vs a touch of supporting
tannin; attractive spicy finish. 85+
2007 Collectio Nero d'Avola -
slightly reductive notes on the nose? Cleaner palate though with peppery dark
cherry, grip and power and lingering dried fruit / black olive notes; has a bit
of class too. 88+
www.casadigrazia.com
 Ottoventi
Which means "eight winds" indicative of the breezy climate around Erice
in western Sicily, no doubt. From the superb photos in their somewhat prosaic
brochure and on the website (a commendably common theme among Sicilian wine
producers - the nice photos I mean - even if certain sites are a little too irritatingly "Flash"...), the
winery has strikingly modern design pitched against a rugged rock-face backdrop.
The curious ".8" and ".20" names might be a digital time reference or something
like "version 8" etc. as in computer/website speak? Talking of curiously named,
Sicily is home to diverse styles of Muscat
often using the pen-name Zibibbo (actually Muscat of Alexandria), which is
incarnated in at least three DOC (appellation) areas.
Ottoventi's delicious little number, called
Scibà, is made from late-harvested then dried grapes ("passito" process). These
3 were also sampled in London in May
2010:
2009 ".8" Grillo - peach and
apricot with juicy lees-y notes; quite rich vs zesty and mineral, again has
lively long finish with lingering exotic juicy vs lightly nutty fruit.
87+
2008 ".20" Nero d'Avola - very
tasty, up-front blackberries with a touch of spicy oak; nice fruit vs dark
chocolate, lively spicy vs firm and rounded finish. Good "modern" style yet
definitely Mediterranean. 87+
2007 Scibà
Zibibbo "Passito" (14%) - gorgeous "late-harvest" nose with
exotic marmalade and spicy greener edges; very rich and Muscat-y vs orange peel
and nice "cut" showing super balance. Yummy. 90+
www.cantinaottoventi.it
Mimmo Paone
I just couldn't get into their website(s), which just
keeps saying "loading... loading... loading..." But I did find him on Facebook
and sent a message, so hopefully will be able to add some info soon.
"During the meanwhilst," here's a couple of rather good wines
(including an unusual aged sweet Malvasia made from dried grapes) to get the
juices flowing,
tasted in London in May 2010:
2007 Malvasia delle Lipari
"Passito di Salina" (14%) -
intricate nutty yeasty oxidised nose; quite rich palate but very nutty too with
tangy citrus finish, sweet vs attractive "cut". Odd but good!
89+
2006 Funnari Nero d'Avola -
attractive maturing savoury vs ripe and smoky nose; more subtle style although
still intense, showing nice balance of dried fruits, dry tannins and underlying
oak. 89
www.mimmopaone.it
/
www.paonevini.it
 Ceuso
OK, so building a "profile" on a winery based around tasting one of
their wines might look a bit of a space-filler; but it seemed silly
not to add a little detail on the people responsible for one of my
more-or-less 90 point wines! Ceuso is actually the name of the Melia
family's (Vincenzo, Antonio and Giuseppe) top red sourced from a
vineyard lying a (long) stone's throw from the celebrated 5th-Century
Segesta Temple. Scurati is apparently their "second" wine made from 100%
Nero d'Avola, which was the
one I happened to taste at the London Wine fair in May 2010 but I'm
glad I did. The company appears to be well-distributed worldwide
including in the USA, Germany, Japan, Switzerland,
UK, Belgium, Netherlands and Malta: more detail on price and stockists
when I have it.
2008 Scurati Nero d'Avola - delicious
dried black cherry and raisin profile, spicy and dark with wild herb edges;
solid and powerful mouth-feel vs underlining depth of dried black fruit, very nice.
88-90
www.ceuso.it
 Limonio
As you'll see from my notes below, these extraordinarily intense fruit
and plant liqueurs, made by Limonio on their 50 ha (124 acre) farm in
Partinico, are rather love-or-hate! All their "natural" alcoholic tipples
are only made from the base ingredient steeped in alcohol plus water and
sugar; and no synthetic chemical pesticides are used to treat the fruit
trees or crop, according to their flyer. These liqueurs - some would be
best as an after-dinner drink, others with a dessert - certainly won't leave you indifferent, if you ever get the chance to try them:
perhaps in a Sicilian restaurant, mixed into a cocktail or, better still, in situ! No
surprise to hear they also produce a delicious extra virgin olive oil on
the estate. I didn't give them "scores" as, well, why bother really; but
it seemed like a good idea to include something this unusual, which
were sampled
on the Sicilian stand at the London Wine fair
in May 2010.
Fico d'India (prickly pear cactus, 30% alc.) - unusual flowery
aromas/flavours vs kick and sweet finish.
Gelsi Neri (black mulberries, 32%) - cough mixture and milk
chocolate, nice on ice cream I'd imagine.
Arancione (orange, 30%) - wow: very intense orange zest
oil aromas and gorgeous orangey flavours.
Limone (35%) - pure lemon intensity, very zesty and "wake up
now"!
Incredible flavour, if you like lemons.
Mandaretto (mandarin, 35%) - very different from the orange one
actually and, erm, very mandarin-y. Love it.
Cannella - super cinnamon intensity, wild Speculoos biscuit flavours!
Laurel leaves - weird herbal concoction, although a great palate
cleanser!
www.limonio.com
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Quick A to Z
Brugnano
Ceuso
Cristo Campobello
Casa Grazia
Limonio
Murgo
Ottoventi
Mimmo Paone
Santa Anastasia
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Wines of the
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