by Frnk Mangio
A year and a half ago, when I first wrote about my ancestral homeland’s native grape, the reaction was a shrug and a nod. I had been served a Chiaramonte
Nero d’Avola at a posh steak restaurant at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, and to my surprise it was an amazingly lovely red wine. I have been a fan ever since. Now, a new generation of committed winemakers in Sicily have come up with a wide variety of this increasingly popular black beauty. Sicily is usually spared the wide eccentricities of Italian weather patterns. Each harvest is similar in quality. Now, you will find many of the 2005 releases, reasonably priced in the 9 to 2o dollar level. I find them deep, dark, mysterious and with a strong blackberry taste; very Syrah-like in texture.
The brand to look for is Planeta, with the ’04 winning the “best of tasting at a recent comparison tasting at the Wall Street Journal’s wine column. They called it “elegant, with chocolate, blackberry and earth…lingering balance…a real sense of place.” Planeta costs a little bit more than the rest but it’s aged in French Oak for 12 months after harvest. You can lay it down for about 7 years and the taste will shine even more. The vineyard is around Noto, which is like Montalcino is to Tuscany. If you're visiting, Noto is along the southeast coast, below Syracusa.
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