Nero d'Avola - Nov 21

Nero d'Avola

Nero d'Avola, the dark red grape from southern Sicily, was front and center for our most recent wine tasting. We've enjoyed this wine for several years, finding it good with food and tasty while being very affordable. This time we each brought a bottle and tasted them blind, before eating and then again during our dinner.

But first, the appetizer: Cheeses from Appleton Creamery: “Camdenbear” a soft cheese made from cow milk, and served with a cranberry chutney from Half Moon Farm; a three milk “tomme” from goat, cow, and sheep milk; and a raw sheep milk cheese, aged over 120 days and “closer to a Romano”. We shared a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau, ($9.99, 2009, Georges Duboeuf, 12.5%). Not normally my preferred wine, this years version was better than I had expected, and was a good way to start the evening. And the cheeses? Awesome: a meal could be made exclusively from them, and we would all have been happy!

Now, the wines:

Fondo Antico Nero d'Avola, 2006, 13.5%, $10.99, imported by Ideal Wine and Spirits. (yellow)

Contrada Ragabo Nero d”Avola, 2006, 14.5%, $12.99, imported by Small Vinyards LLC. (green)

Terre Nero d'Avola, no year indicated, 13%, $10.65, Imported by Leonard Locascio. (orange)

Villa Pozzi Nero d'Avola, no year indicated, 13.5%, $16.99, imported by WJ Deutsch and sons (blue)

We normally are quite fond of this wine. It has lively flavor (berries, cherry, some spice) and enough tannin to make it good with food. But these wines were “all over the place” as one guest noted. It was hard to get a good sense of what the wine really tastes like from the four samples we had. Comments ranged from “harsh” to “sweet”, from “bland” to “comfortable, completely different”.

One wine, the first we tasted, (Fondo Antico) was universally panned. None of us really liked it, the tannins were too strong and no clear flavor emerged. The most charitable thing to say was that it would be a good pizza wine, or a good 2 Euro/bottle wine in Europe.

The other three wines were all different. Scores were closely matched, with the Villa Pozzi narrowly (should I saw “nero-ly?) edging the others for overall favorite. There were hints of blueberry in the flavor, and it had the most balanced tannins.

My favorite was the Terre, which was also the least expensive.

As expected, the wines became much, much better with food. We ate a roast leg of lamb, with roasted root vegetables and carrots cooked in cream. The wines had good body to stand up to the strong flavors, and even the least Fondo Antico was pleasant with the meal. But the others all came into their own – really adding to the meal and tasting much better in their own right.

We had fun, we enjoyed a great meal, and we talked about the next get together, whenever that will be!