Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
variety, camoufl aging its characteristic aromas
and fl avors, replacing them with the tried and
true and instantly recognizable black pepper,
graphite, chocolate, and coffee notes now com-
mon to wines made all over the world. Very
small percentages of similar international vari-
eties added to Nero d'Avola wines might be
another story, but I still greatly prefer the
monovarietal bottlings.
Variable quality levels is still the biggest
problem with Nero d'Avola wines. The variety is
used to make wines ranging from absolutely
horrible to downright memorable. In truth, this
has always been the problem with Nero d'Avola;
as the poor wines far outnumber the good ones,
it's no wonder that the variety didn't excite
imaginations for the better part of the twenti-
eth century. Still, if you were to ask a local pro-
ducer's grandfather about his youth, the gentle-
man would be quick to say that one of his big
childhood amusements (in an age when there
was no TV, video, or Internet) was to go to the
local port with
his
grandfather and watch the
tankers fi lled with wine leave for distant shores.
Those tankers would have been full of Nero
d'Avola, on their way to Tuscan, Ligurian, and
French ports, aimed at increasing the color and
alcohol of anemic red wines made in those
colder, less sunlight-blessed northern lands.
That all began to change with the renaissance
of Sicilian wine in the 1980s: better winemak-
ing and viticulture allowed Nero d'Avola and its
wines to surge to the top of the heap. There was
a moment in the late 1990s in which Nero
d'Avola was
the
wine to drink at home and in
restaurants in Italy: much like Argentinean
Malbec today, people everywhere just couldn't
get, or drink, enough. However, just as it was
quick to rise, Nero d'Avola was quick to fall: a
victim of its own success, and the greed of
some who churned out too many rustic,
unpleasant, and nonsensical wines. So today,
while still an important variety and wine, Nero
d'Avola wines have become a slightly harder
sell, at least in Italy: “going out of stock” bins in
large wineshops in Rome or Milan will reveal
plenty of Nero d'Avola wines. Another big prob-
lem has always been off-island bottlers and the
suspect quality of their “Nero d'Avola” wines,
which have done much to damage the cultivar's
reputation. Recent government steps to curb
this practice has been welcome news for all
those who love Nero d'Avola wines.
In fairness, Nero d'Avola's great moment of
popularity did serve an important purpose: it
made clear, once and for all, that the variety is
capable of making at least very good wines (and
sometimes great ones, in the right hands), and
can take its place among Italy's noble (or almost
noble) varieties. Its bright dark-red cherry and
spicy, aromatic herb aromas and fl avors are
appreciated by wine drinkers everywhere, as
are its low astringency and high but usually
harmonious acidity. In my view, Nero d'Avola's
potential greatness is best harnessed in Sicily's
southeastern corner around the city of Ragusa,
but monovarietal Nero d'Avola wines differ
greatly in their expression depending on
ter-
roirs.
This has been clearly shown over the years
by Vito and Matteo Catania of the famous Gulfi
estate, who along with their winemaker Salvo
Foti, have done more than anyone else to show-
case what Nero d'Avola can do in different
ter-
roirs.
To their credit, theirs is the only estate
bottling many different single-vineyard Nero
d'Avola wines. That Nero d'Avola can express
site sensitivity admirably was already well
known to many winemakers and Sicilian pro-
ducers at the end of the twentieth century, but
only Gulfi has bothered to take advantage of
this feature. Nero d'Avola from different vine-
yard sites in the manner of Burgundy and Pinot
Nero, or Piedmont and Barolo is essentially
unheard of. Most Sicilian producers are quite
happy in making an entry-level bottling and
perhaps a more complex reserve-type bottling
(usually christened with a fancy, fantastical
name), but I really believe this limits what Nero
d'Avola might be capable of expressing, and
amounts to a missed opportunity.
For example, when made from grapes
grown at higher altitudes in the central part of
the island, Nero d'Avola wines tend to have
paler colors and more mineral personalities; in
