Fantastic. Pair with lamb dishes.

Lovely, medium-high intensity bouquet of dried floral, dried & stewed dark berry, savoury wet earth & sweet spice aromas. It's medium-full bodied and dry with smooth, fine-grained tannins that are resolving nicely & w/ very good acidity. Flavours are savoury w/ wet earth, forest floor & woody flavours, plus touches of desiccated dark berry, violet & dark plum. Still quite composed & balanced, with just a touch of warmth and some chalky grip on the mid-palate. Earthy and savoury, with some stewed dark berry notes on the satisfyingly long finish. Tasted Jan. 2024. Score: 91+ pts

Different. Good.

What a lovely surprise, not knowing what this was (found out later it is a cab sauv/nero d'avola blend) I was delighted with a richly textured and full of varied spice flavours wine at a very reasonable price.

The 10% Cab in this blend uplifts the 90% Nero d'Avola, providing a delicious core of juicy cassis. There's also abundant blackberry, dark cherry, vanilla, cinnamon, finely-ground black pepper, earth, iron, and herbs, very much of a southern Italian idiom but thankfully without much wood. The tannins have obviously softened considerably, but there's still remarkable acidity for a wine of this age, and the cran-cherry tartness is actually quite sharp. A very good "Super Sicilian," even if the elements don't quite hold together and the elegant core is surrounded by a rough, murky exterior.

January 2019