Nerello Mascalese, Etna, Calmarossa, Santa Maria La Nave 2020
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Why this wine
Etna's black volcanic sands give reds a perfume and transparency you rarely meet elsewhere in Sicily, and this 2.5-hectare plot sits on the slope of an old crater with a pre-phylloxera heart. Yields are tiny, the oak is handled with restraint, and the wine is released with bottle age already behind it. One for anyone who prizes fine tannin and lift over sheer weight.
At a glance
- Grape
- Nerello Mascalese 85%, Nerello Cappuccio 15%
- Region
- Sicily, Italy
- Alcohol
- 14.00%
- Body
- Medium
- Acidity
- High
- Tannins
- Medium
- Sweetness
- Dry
- Drink
- Medium (5-10 yrs)
- Pairs with
- Red Meat, Cheese, Pasta
How it tastes
Wild cherry and raspberry lead, lifted by rose and violet, with cinnamon, cocoa, graphite and liquorice underneath. The palate is full and enveloping but the tannins are fine and elegant, and the finish is mineral and saline. Nerello Mascalese 85%, Nerello Cappuccio 15%.
The producer
Santa Maria La Nave is a small boutique winery on Mount Etna, established by Giuseppe ‘Peppino’ Mulone in 1954 and built around indigenous varieties. The 2.5-hectare vineyard lies on the south-eastern slopes on the steep flank of an old crater, with a pre-phylloxera heart and black volcanic sands rich in minerals, planted at around 8,000 vines per hectare in the traditional alberello Etneo bush method; yields are very low and the vineyard is farmed without pesticides. Gently crushed skins and must went into stainless steel, where indigenous yeasts fermented and macerated the wine for three weeks with pump-overs, after which it completed malolactic conversion at 18°C, aged nine months in French oak barrels and spent a further six months in bottle.
Food and drinking
Serve at 16–18°C. It suits roast lamb, grilled mushrooms, a rich tomato pasta and aged pecorino, and will drink well over the next five to ten years. Half an hour in a decanter helps it open. Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.