Sicily’s greatest grape is also doing well in Australia
If you like your red wine with plenty of colour, sweetness and structure, you will love the king of Sicilian grapes – nero d’avola. In the last 20 years, this esteemed Sicilian grape has started to produce really refined examples – but still on offer at fabulous prices. As Sicily’s most widely planted grape with more than 20,000 hectares, there are plenty of grapes available from this high yielding variety to keep prices down – but the key is growing it in the warmest sites to achieve the best results.
When grown in the most sundrenched vineyards, nero d’avola makes a wine with great power, berried fruit and attack. Tastewise, it is a bit like a blend of a full robust malbec and sweet spicy shiraz with its ink-black colour, rich high sugar, liquorice fruits and spicy savoury notes – but nero d’avola also has a firm fresh acidity to liven up the finish.
It’s no surprise that this Sicilian grape is a popular blender with cabernet sauvignon and merlot, bolstering these elegant French grapes when grown in Sicily. In the not-toodistant past, the ‘black grape’ (as nero was called) was regularly exported to Tuscany and Piedmont and even Languedoc to strengthen their lighter reds.
Nero d’avola’s fame has spread and it is often made as a respected single varietal – many of which are now on our shelves.
Nero d’avola’s homeland is near Syracuse in south-east Sicily, where it is believed to originate from the town of Avola itself. This is a land of baking hot parched flat vineyards with barely a hill in sight. Plantings of the grape here used to be much higher, until it lost out to the increasing number of fruit and vegetables tunnels.
In the official Italian register of grapes, it is listed as calabrese – it was first mentioned under this name in records in 1696 – but the name nero d’avola is the one that appears on our wine labels.
Sicily’s heat-loving nero d’avola grape is also emerging
as a great success story Down Under too. For a grape that has a strong affinity with the sea, relishing sun-drenched maritime climates, Mclaren Vale in South Australia is a near-perfect location for it. Plantings are still small here, with at least five producers in Mclaren Vale: Coriole, Sabella, Kay Brothers, Alpha Box & Dice and Pertaringa. In Clare Valley, renowned winemaker Jeffrey Grosset is experimenting with the grape – as is the Politini winery in King Valley, Victoria.
It was first imported by the Chalmers family into Victoria – they make a high quality example from Heathcote in northwest Victoria – and there are now 200,000 nero d’avola vines from a single vine imported just 20 years ago. As temperatures continue to rise and droughts continue, we will see more of Aussie nero d’avola appearing from Riverina and Riverland regions.
Sicily: Terre Siciliane Nero d’avola 2016
The cheapest nero d’avola in our tasting – shows the soft, light, milder side of this grape. Our tasters thought this quaffable, but unremarkable compared to other heftier more robust styles.
£5.49, Lidl
Sicily: Nero d’avola La Ferla 2017 Canicatti
Sourced from grapes grown on sandy silt and limestone soils, this co-operative near Agrigento makes a very respectable wild plum and silky cherry fruited example.
£7.25, The Wine Society
Sicily: Nero d’avola 2017 Mandarossa
A step up in quality to a damson, sweet chocolate and savoury red – served ‘blind’ this could be confused with an Argentinian malbec. £9.99, Valvona & Crolla, Edinburgh
Sicily: Nero Oro Appassimento 2017
So much colour and fruit for your money here, for those who like a sweet, rich, dense nero d’avola – this is made using dried grapes – it has a similar textural feel to Amarone, but in fact tastes more like an Australian shiraz.
£8.99, Majestic Wine
Sicily: Nero d’avola La Segreta 2017 Planeta
Plummy, spicy, powerful example with dry tannins; rich cherry and blueberry fruits, lacking a little of the elegance of previous vintages. £11.69, Valvona & Crolla, Edinburgh; Great Western Wine
Sicily: Depasso Nero d’avola Leggermento Appassito 2017
A clever blend of two parcels from coastal vineyards: one where the grapes were dried and the other fermented just after picking. The result is deliciously raisiny with liquorice hints, deep complex layers of flavours, with a freshly acidic bite to the finish.
£14.99, Virgin Wines
Mclaren Vale, South Australia: Nero d’avola Siren 2016 Alpha Box & Dice
Nero d’avola grows well in the Trotts vineyard of maritime Blewitt Springs, a subregion of Mclaren Vale. It makes a souracid, cherry fruited red. £24, Woodwinters; Drinkmonger; Vincognito
Heathcote, Victoria, Australia: Nero d’avola 2015 Chalmers
Nero d’avola has found a home in Heathcote’s ironstone red soils, producing this juicy example with raspberry fruit and cherry notes. £16.30, www. theaustraliancellar.co.uk