Another Susumaniello adventure from time spent hanging around the Salento bit of Puglia that’s worth a few words maybe. This very pretty labelled bottle came to the table from a small but nicely stocked enoteca found in among the winding alleys of old seaside Otranto. The label neatly shows most of the delicious things local to the area including octopus who thoughtfully seem to have enough legs to keep me fed. A couple of years rest since bottling seem to have rounded but not diminished those rich red fruited Susu flavours. A note of nutty naturalness sits comfortably with that deep and very ripe pomegranate tang together with a sweet spicy earthiness. Licorice, cinnamon and fruit chocolate seem a reasonable explanation of the flavours too. Soft and velvet rubbed the wrong way tannins keep the scales from tipping. A lovely, just right, roundness seems the import, not too much of anything, not too little. Comparisons can be a bit silly when the point of the expedition is to find local difference but they can help us understand maybe. So, if pushed, perhaps a bit like one of those fresh, deeply purple Spanish Garnachas, particularly Tintorea or a very ripe Bierzo Mencia sort of gets there but there’s more fat here. The maestro of Italian wine grapes, Dr. Ian D’Agata, suggests Susumaniello means load up the donkey in dialect due to historical high yields but the recent revival seems more about flavour and pleasure.
14% alcohol. Diam. €15.
93 distinctively local points.
