Category: Italy

2021 Tenuta delle Terre Nere Etna Rosso

Terre Nere are reckoned to be a founder member of the Etna Rosso brigade. The owner seems to have spent most of a working life consulting and exporting Italian wine to the world. He then chose Etna for his own vineyard or as their website puts it, perhaps Etna chose him, such is the magnetism of the place. The website also suggests the Etna Rosso is “fresh, fragrant, beautifully slender with a fine grip.” That sums it up really. The site goes on to add that with ageing, “it is a wine for gentlemen. It is an aristocratically liberal wine.” Well, that may rule out a bolshy blogger. Luckily it didn’t stop a good wine shop in Acireale selling me a bottle. In the glass, it is indeed a classy mouthful. All the rocky red fruit of Etna and that nexus of pumice like tannin and a fine tingle of acidity. Medium weight and just so for its level below what must be some astoundingly good crus from their various contrada holdings. Think there may be an indulgence if the holiday budget holds up. May have to buy a cravat.

14% alcohol. Diam. €25.

93 very cultured points.

2019 I Custodi Etna Rosso Aetneus Contrada Muganazzi

The custodians of the vines of Etna to translate the full name of this producer who has obviously invested a lot of everything into their place under the north slope of the volcano. One of five producers supervised by the Etna legend, Salvo Foti. A visit is a memorable thing both in visuals and flavour, I’ll try and post something more about the experience. This stood out from the reds tasted, so I bought a bottle for dinner. Though I must say it was the Ante Etna Bianchi that in hindsight were the most startling. Anyway, at the table with a plate of incredibly good fresh ricotta ravioli in pistachio pesto this was as rich and seamless as it tasted closer to the mountain. The usual Etna cherry and dark brown spices with a backing track of roasting nuts and the deep boom of the sweet damp organic soil whence it comes, fanciful maybe but….in short, deep red fruit cut with fine ashy tannin and ripe acidity. Etna Rosso’s fine chiselled fruit and its austere rocky texture perhaps aren’t the most alluring and easy to appreciate but once you get the taste, only more will do. The care and resources invested in these vines is more than apparent in the glass.

14% alcohol. Cork and a bit of a squelchy one. €32 at the winery.

95 points.

2020 Calcagno Arcuria Etna Rosso

The distance from the vineyard of Arcuria bordered by that CircumEtnea railway line on the edge of Passopisciaro to the Calcagno winery isn’t far. Lucky to share the bottle a few metres further up the hill watching the last daylight fade on Etna‘s northern slope. Think I may have got a bit throat lumpy but still managed a swallow. Ah, wine and place. Fine tart essence of raspberry juice with a lot of cherry and a bit of strawberry sweet fruit. If you concentrate on the passing trail of flavour, there seems to be a swell of something like that smell when you empty a fire grate of its fine white wood ash. Auto volcano suggestion? There is something sulphury going on but it’s not the bitterness of bad H2S wine making. Odd thoughts do seem to infest a wine lover’s brain. Anyway, another beautifully made, delicious bottle of Etna Rosso. Just ripe, intense red fruit with a sweep of austere dryness leads straight to the table.

14% alcohol but no heat. Diam. Bargain, see the Calcagno Bianco post.

94 points.

2022 Calcagno Ginestra Etna Bianco

There’s a train that winds its slow way up the volcano from near Catania to the wine nut’s destination of Passopisciaro nestling under its northern slope. So rich is the volcanic soil the line was originally built to carry the mountain’s products down to the coast. Now it carries school kids and wine hunters both back and forth. It’s an amazing contrast to go from the dry limestone of the baroque south east of Sicily to the green jungle of Etna’s sea facing rise. Due east from the train’s starting terminus at Riposto is the village of Milo at the refreshing altitude of about 800 metres above sea level. It’s where the rich from Catania would spend their summers and where Carricante finds a place to happily ripen. So much so Italian wine law says you can add Superiore to Etna Bianco. Don’t think this producer could be bothered. They did bother to break from vintage work to sell two thirsty travellers a couple of bottles when all in Passopisciaro was shuttered and closed. Would have been a terrible prospect, an evening looking at Etna and no wine. There’s a fine elegance, for want of a better word, to good Etna Bianco. Rich citrus, mint and a hint of white chocolate in floral honey all carried on a vapour trail of the most mouthwatering and pumice fine acidity. Just got more interesting as its reserve melted. On repeat, it always tastes better close to the vines.

13.5% alcohol. Diam. Seems like I got a bargain as this and a bottle of their Arcuria Rosso were €32 for both. Maybe got a discount for looking so desperate.

94 points.

2023 COS Frappato Terre Siciliane

Think I’ve only tried a COS bottle once before sometime in the early 2000s. A Pithos maybe. Memories of some lovely crisp fruit and a less than sanitary visit to the farm shed. Subsequent reviews I’ve searched have veered from the spectacular to the worst of down the sink candidates. Hoping for something more the former, a splash of euros on a very recent vintage of a favourite Sicilian grape. Here goes. Opened with a reductive and a yeasty natty edge, not in the sartorial sense. Settled down brilliantly overnight to a sparkling blast of pomegranate, raspberry and waft of the sweetest herbs. So fine a chisel has sculpted bright acidity and such fine tannin, you can’t see the gaps. Perfume and flavour float. When what’s called natural wine these days is this good, it’s like the difference between a live performance and making do with a YouTube version. A bottle of supermarket Cerasuolo looked contrived and sulphur leaden by comparison. Beautiful grapes, simple.

12.% alcohol. Diam. €24 well spent.

94 points.

2021 Castelluccimiano Bianco Catarratto Valledolmo Contea di Sclafani

From a fairly recent DOC I think up in the western hills of Sicily comes another native of the island. Castelluccimiano’s website has more information about the vineyard at an altitude of above 700m and some great photos of a rebirth of some old farming territory. In times of a changing climate you can only hope they’re surviving the drought afflicting much of central Sicily. This had a succulent depth of savoury citrus fruit with a bit of maybe local prickly pear. Having just tried some from a local market, maybe it’s valid. The local slang for the fruit is big bastard, great. Good sweep of dried herb and chamomile too. A pleasing chunk of ripe acid makes a plate of Sicilian sea creatures a good idea. I thought I knew a bit about the island’s wine but there’s so much more to discover. Doing my best.

13% alcohol. Diam, yes again. €15 ish.

92 or 93 for faith in a place.

2020 Serafini e Vidotto Recantina Montello – Colli Asolani

Ah Asolo, a favourite and very beautiful village in the Veneto near Treviso which was so loved by Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett that they turned the name into a verb. Hanging around the pretty village was Asoloing. S and V have made some of my favourite Italian Cabernets too. Their home is in the town of Nervesa della Battaglia, maybe apprehensive about the fight, probably not. Finding three different labels of theirs in the impressive Trieste Eataly mega store caused some dithering. Mrs CBT sagely suggested the one with the nicest graphics. With no indication of the grapes on the label or so I thought, it was sort of disappointing to find this wasn’t Cabernet but a super rare Veneto oldie, Recantina, der. The result was no disappointment, incredibly intense wafts of spice and sap like diving nose first into a freshly scythed herb bed. Loads of sweet fruit extract too filling the senses with red fruits galore. The texture of ripe dense sweet tannin mingled beautifully with mouthwatering acidity that lightened and matched the fruit loading. Another previously unacquainted Italian and love at first sight.

13.5% alcohol. Diam again. €19.

93 points.

2023 Cantina Gries Bolzano Lagrein Alto Adige

The train from Munich to the Veneto passes through the beautiful Alto Adige or Südtirol as Italy’s language complications would have it. There’s a lot of vineyards around Bolzano and the misty mountains, maybe the train passed by the source of this bright spark to the appetite. Lagrein seems to make wine with healthy rich extract without being weighed down by alcohol or tannin. Tart and mouth watering. Sour cherry, dry kirsch and mountain crisp to finish but still a generosity of fruit. A good bite of just ripe skin tannin. There seems to be some really well organised cooperatives up in the Alto Adige. Good to see growers banding together to make something more than the sum of its parts. Together we’re better, even it involves some spirited discussion, it’s Italy after all.

13% alcohol. Diam again. €13.

92 points.

2022 Dorigo Cabernet Franc Friuli Colli Orientali

Spell check turned Dorigo into Dorito, maybe not a recommended food match. I wondered if this producer is related to one of the best Australian left backs who unfortunately played for both Chelsea and England. Secular things aside, it’s interesting that Cab Franc and Merlot are not recent international arrivals in Friuli. Very unsubstantiated sources suggest they either arrived pre phylloxera with pilgrims wandering back from France or were established by Napoleon which may be at odds with his supposed love of Burgundies. Nonetheless the two most offered reds around here in Trieste seem to be these Bordelaise upstarts, with Refosco and Schioppettino making the odd appearance. So, a random Franc from the supermarket shelf and a good result. Easily fooled into thinking this a good Loire version with just so Franc flavours of dark raspberry and sweet leafiness. Good sinewy tannins are carried by ripe acidity. Just medium bodied and not trying too hard. Good value from the shelves of Trieste’s Coop supermarket. Their deli section is impressive too.

13% alcohol. Diam. €14.

91 points.

2019 Giovanni Rosso Esther Canale Rosso Langhe Nebbiolo

I do get to drink incredibly well sometimes thanks to friends’ extreme generosity. I did at first think, so, you’ve only opened a Langhe Rosso while I’ve dug a 2010 Boschis Via Nuova out for you. Teach me to be so unkind. The Boschis Barolo was malty, muddy and horribly oxidised, not the first 2010 to be disappointing. To be honest, I did have a vague memory of Giovanni Rosso making a Langhe from a cru vineyard and it being a bit special, and not cheap. Turns out this comes from a cherished Rosso family plot in Vigna Rionda no less. And what a fine glass of wine it was. So finely wrought. All the best possible sweet red cherries dusted in perfumed sweet spices. A lift of flowers to fill out the edges. The essence of summer fruit is backed up by a savoury nut paste. In shape, sort of like Grand Cru Burg, inasmuch as there’s enormous flavour that just floats on fine tannin of great finesse that dissipates on a long vapour trail of gentle but persistent acidity. Best possible way to forget a dodgy bottle of Barolo.

14% alcohol. Cork. $275 RRP, eek.

96 points.