Score: 91+/100
This Etna Rosso DOC wine is made in one of Piccini’s estates in Sicily, on the slopes of Mount Etna, the 10,920ft (3330m) active volcano that dominates the north-eastern corner of this island in the South of Italy.
It is a blend of local grapes varieties: 85% Nerello Mascalese, and 15% Nerello Cappuccio aged for 12 to 18 months in oak wine barrels.
Tasting Notes
This red wine from the Mount Etna comes in a relatively light red color, with some subtle oranges hues, and it is a little hazy.
The nose however, is vibrantly fruity and pungent. Fresh raspberry and blackcurrant are so lively to smell and burst in intense aromas out of the glass. There is a wealth of surprising fresh citrus notes as well for a red, zesty lemon and sweaty grapefruit juice are dominant notes to the aromatic profile too.
Add some white pepper and chili-like lifted spiciness, and you have an exciting, rare, and somewhat aerial pungently fruity nose.
The palate first surprises by its silkiness, it’s smooth and delicately velvety on your taste buds initially. Then a vibrant mineral acidity kicks in, bringing in with it the crispiness of lime and lemon flavors, blueberry juice, some saltiness too. Tannins get a little more characterful and savory to the finish, making you salivate from delicate bitterness and subtle edges.
On the palate to are massive bursts of fresh berry fruit flavors, loads of white peppery spices.
A rare and very unique tasting sensation this wine holds. Somewhat disturbing as it is both more rustic, or perhaps more authentic than most wine, yet balanced and delicate somehow.
A wine that tastes like grapes, like the grapes it comes from. But don’t get me wrong, it tastes like wine too, like the wine it actually is. Genuine to itself, both vinous and genuine to its grapes.
Savory yet fruity, mineral and acidic, balanced and generous. Quite a stunning wine for providing such a rare and surprising tasting experience.
A wine to experience then it is… 100%.
A 91/100 pointer to place on the relative grand scale of the wines of the world, in the absolute, with a + for the sheer concentration of flavors. But it would be much higher if uniqueness of the tasting experience was more weighted on that scale, as well as the pure enjoyment the wine provides.
Enjoy 🙂
Learn more about the producer and Etna wines at Tenuta Torre Mora winery profile:
Watch Tasting Notes for Terre Mora Etna Rosso in Video
Like my Spiegelau wine Glassware?
Check it out on Amazon
Please let me know your thoughts