February 2022 Wine Club
Return To Sicily with Castelluccimiano
Welcome back to Grandiflora’s Wine Club Blog, everyone! We hope winter has been kind to you and we’re excited to get back into the pre-spring swing of things with a bold and delicious drop of some beautiful Sicilian wines! When we last focused on Sicily, we primarily talked about Mount Etna and its expressive grape Nerello Mascalese. We return to the island in the Valle d’Olmo, up the mountain from the historic medieval port of Palermo. Our focus this month is on a single producer: Castelluccimiano.
Producer Focus: Castelluccimiano
Sicily is an ancient wine producing region distinct from the mainland of Italy. Mythologically, this is the island of the Cyclopes of the Odyssey, who were notorious guzzlers of wine. Sicily maintained extensive vineyards through centuries of Carthaginian, Roman, Byzantine, and Muslim rule, with production beginning to decline during the tenure of Norman princes in the 13th century. Sicilian winemaking, particularly production of the dessert wine Marsala, began to revive in the early modern era but was overshadowed by durum wheat production for most of the 20th century, and has only recently entered a renaissance with a global focus on the wines coming from the Etna region.
Perhaps caught in the middle of this have been the wines of the high central plateau of Italy, where Castelluccimiano is located. Largely spared by the conquest and reconquest of the region, the area in the foothills of the Madonie mountain consists of gently rolling red sandy clay — terra rosso, or Mediterranean red earth. Agriculture here, including grape growing, was traditionally in very small family plots and has been dominated in the modern era by cooperatives of remaining smallholders, at the expense of typicity. This is why it’s exciting for us to find a small (for the area, at 75 hectares) producer focused on terroir-driven expressions of indigenous varietals Catarratto and Nero d’Avola.
Castelluccimiano’s claim to fame is their careful work to reconstruct an indigenous viticulture of Valledolmo. What was once a 530-hectare estate as recently as the 19th century had been largely abandoned, and the team at Castelluccimiano has been acquiring small plots of the original estate and restoring them. Their focus has been on native varietals such as Cataratto and Perricone, and they select vines for hardiness by growing them without pesticides, irrigation, or fertilizers. While they focus on restoring the vineyards, they leave other parcels and the margins wild as a form of polyculture, to study the interaction of the grapes with an unaltered environment.
(Two of) Italy’s Indigenous Grapes: Cataratto and Nero d’Avola
Italy’s subtropical climate and exposure to the Simoon, the hot winds rolling off the Sahara, make it a challenging place to grow delicate grapes and a great place to grow these robust, slow-ripening, heat loving grapes.
DNA analysis reveals that Cataratto is the parent of Grillo and a relative, possibly grandparent, of the Veneto’s Garganega, famous for its elegant expressions in the Soave DOC. Cataratto has been overlooked as a “serious” grape due to its use as a bulk component for raising sugar and alcohol levels during difficult years in France, but it has just as much potential for elevated expression as, for example, Chardonnay. It is widely grown in Sicily, but not widely revered. Castelluccimiano’s treatment of Cataratto is honestly one of my favorite expressions of the grape.
Nero d’Avola may be the Sicilian grape most familiar to Americans due to its extensive production, and it is primarily exported as a value wine for the same reason. It has also been used as a flavor and color addition for other European wine regions, similar to Catartatto. However, it has excellent potential to develop powerful, expressive, ageworthy wines with deep phenolic and tannic character. Because of its rising regard, it’s tempting for winemakers to make Nero d’Avola with a smoky, oaky, Bordelaise character, which is why Castelluccimiano’s floral and fruity exploration of the grape stands as an atypical contrast and warrants our attention this month.
What we love
about the Miano
This 100% Cataratto cuvee is racked off lees before malolactic fermentation begins, yielding an emphasis on the acid and aromatic potential of the grape. The acid is bright, sharp, and sustained, balanced between citrus and apple, and the aromatics are lush and complex. Aged for only three months in steel, this is a dynamic wine on the palate with coiled intensity. It’s an excellent demonstration of the full range of Cataratto’s potential. Serve well chilled.
about the Nero d’Avola
The balance struck in this Nero d’Avola is what strikes me. Nero d’Avola has the potential for incredible intensity, and Tonino Guzzo has softened and rounded that out to show dimensions of this grape that are often overlooked. While varietally typical earthy richness anchors this bottle’s profile, a lighter maceration and elevage for only 10 months in oak and steel before bottle finishing has preserved a heady phenolic fruitiness and florality that’s a refreshing take on a wine often made to pair with steak and burgers. Full malolactic fermentation softens Nero’s characteristic sharp acidity and provides further balance. I would pair this with hearty vegetables or a rich and creamy stew.
I hope you enjoy drinking these wines as much as I’ve enjoyed writing about them! If you really love them and want much more, ask about our new buyer’s club case pricing! It’s been a while since our last wine club release and I’ve missed seeing your smiling faces, or at least the top half of them. 😷 Take care and see you in the shop!
Cheers,
Jason
