From: Sicily, Italy
Blend: 70% Nero d’Avola, 30% Perricone
Taste: So fresh and so clean! This surprisingly elegant red will become a new favorite for anyone who loves wines that come from areas like Alto-Piemonte, northern Burgundy, Savoie, Vallee d’Aosta, Alto Adige, the Loire Valley, and any varietals that feature crunchy, chillable, versatile red-fruited wines that can be enjoyed whenever and wherever. Summer strawberries, red cherries, red plum skin, rose petals, and pomegranate blend seamlessly with baking spice, orange zest, and balsamic notes in the glass and on the palate.
Pairing: Some pairing ideas include serving this wine slightly chilled alongside dishes like chicken salad with pomegranate, pinenuts & raisins, caramelized barbecued pork patties (bun cha) or Char Siu (Chinese BBQ Pork), sweet and sour eggplant, anything close to or in the realm of pizza (example and recipe below), dishes that have a strong Mediterranean influence, arancini, wild boar or roasted pork, and rabbit.
Tomato Crostata With Honey-Thyme Glaze
By Melissa Clark
About. Many thanks to our friends at Oliver McCrum Wines for importing these wines and providing the following info! Western Sicily grows a lot of OK wine, but the wines from Centopassi are different. They come from various vineyards in the high Belice Corleonese, a plateau at over 500 meters (1800 feet) above sea level, near the town of Corleone, south of Palermo. The soils are clay of various kinds, at an altitude that gives cool nights and fresh acidity at harvest; the vineyards are cultivated organically; the varieties are indigenous to Sicily, which is to say adapted to the conditions found here; the winemaking allows the native character of the fruit to shine and is not at all intrusive, and the results range from excellent everyday drinking (Giato Rosso and Bianco) to the best Sicilian single-vineyard wines I’ve had outside of Etna. The whites are particularly striking, vivid, and mouthwatering, but the whole range is consistently excellent.
That’s the vinous story, but there is another side to this estate. ‘I Cento Passi,’ the Hundred Steps, is an anti-Mafia film made in 2000, and Centopassi wines are grown in vineyards confiscated from convicted Mafiosi, some of them notorious (such as Salvatore ’Toto’ Riina). In other words, the mere existence of this estate is a renunciation of the Mafia, and of the terrible effect that the Mafia has had on the people of Sicily for generations. We are proud to support Centopassi and Libera Terra, the organization behind it.
Harvest at Centopassi usually takes place at the end of August through September, depending on the variety. The white wines are fermented with neutral selected yeasts, while indigenous yeasts are used for the reds.
This wine. Centopassi’s grapes come from various vineyards in the high Belice Corleonese Plateau, near Corleone, south of Palermo. ‘Giato’ is the area around the ancient Greek theatre on Mount Jato. While Nero D’Avola is grown all over Sicily, Perricone is a specialty of the Northwestern corner.
About the area. Alto Belice Corleonese is a territory particularly suited to producing high-quality wines. Open, uncontaminated scenarios, with limestone peaks that emerge on a plateau with a very high average altitude, make this corner of the Mediterranean a perfect place for optimal vine growth.
Thermal excursions, winds, the composition of the soil, and the symbiosis achieved with the vines Centopassi has selected lead to ideal starting conditions, far removed from many stereotypes related to Sicilian wines. Here, elegance is the master, the flavor is omnipresent, and the maximum smoothness of the wines guides every minor decision, from the painstaking care of the vineyards to processes that consistently emphasize the freshness and expressiveness of the fruity components.
Soils. The Alto Belice Corleonese plateau territory develops behind the mountains of Palermo and has altitudes ranging from 300 to 950 meters above sea level (from 1000 to over 3000 feet). The plateau was born from a silico-carbonate depression, as evidenced by the numerous white mountains of calcium carbonate surrounding it. In the various geological eras, the evolution and erosion processes by wind, air, and water have led to the formation of soils characterized by significant pedological variability. The soils are predominantly clayey and of variable chemical composition, but there is no lack of areas where sandstone and red sands prevail. All their vineyards are in the Alto Belice Corleonese area, except Fontanafredda.
About the grapes. Nero d'Avola. Perricone.
