Wow. This is an amazing wine. Took a little bit to open up but is just fantastic. Light bodied, but tons of flavor and beautiful pure fruit. Fantastic aromatics. Lots of complexity with some iron noted and a long finish. Not a simple wine at all. QPR at the $20 price point is ridiculous.
I agree, I’ve been a fan of this wine for a few years now. The single vineyard bottlings are great as well.
I’ve had a few of their whites which are worth checking out. Someone remarked that with age they can share some resemblance with Chablis, which I could see. Definitely a “mineral” component here.
I’ve had a couple of bottles of this recently and enjoyed it. Amazing? For me, that’s a big stretch. It is clean and pure with a nice volcanic soil terroir, but it definitely lacks some depth and complexity in my view. To be honest, it seems like one step up from an Italian table wine and, as such, is a marginal value at $20.
Didn’t really enjoy this when I had it. If I recall I thought it was showing some oak that I didn’t particularly enjoy. It lacked a refreshing quality.
Largest stash of Etna wine on Cellar tracker. Is this popularity a fair reflection of its quality and/or value? Which would be the Prum, Baudry, PdB, etc., equivalent in Etna?
I am pretty deep in Etna wines and this is probably the most widely available along with the benanti.
I really liked this wine and thought it was drinking far above its price point, as Etna wines often do. The graci Arcuria is probably my favorite for both whites and reds.
I didn’t get much oak on this and I’m very oak-averse. Also, “refreshing” is not a quality I think many people look for in reds, so this comment is a bit confusing.
Paul … refreshing can mean stimulating, offering something new or different.
In this sense, I do like refreshing red wines.
Many red wines can be tiring and one dimensional. You only want a single glass. Those are not “refreshing”
Not commenting on the qualities of this wine, just describing my take on “refreshing”
I didn’t notice any oak. The first glass I had with dinner was the LdH cubillo and it had far less wood than that.
Completely agree. Awesome wine for the price. A weekday staple for me.
Exactly. Freshness may be another term I’d use instead. It might not have been oak, I didn’t take notes and I recall that it was hard to place exactly what felt wrong, but i remember my glass as a bit tiring/fatiguing, and I didn’t pour myself another. I strongly prefer the passopisciaro passorosso, though to be fair, that is certainly another tier of pricing at 30 bucks.
I think this wine needs a few min to open up. I slow oxed for like 30 min before dinner and it didn’t really open up until another 30 min in the glass. There’s quite a bit of structure and the aromatics are great. It’s not as complex as many SVD Etna wines but then again it’s $20.
good wine year in year out … great value … ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
Agreed…there is no noticeable oak on this wine. It is a very clean wine, driven by bright red fruit and acidity. Compared to the Passopisciaro the Terre Nere is slightly leaner and lighter bodied (and a slightly less exciting, but to me more “gulpable”…although I love both).
Love it and 2016 was pretty good
Uh-oh,
Terre Nere WS #10 wine of the year. Availability will suffer.
Darn!
Still 16 at empire wine, load up
The winery is owned by Marc de Grazia, who is best known as the middleman between a lot of modernist Barolo makers and their US importers/distributors. So he has very good connections in the US distribution system. I think that mostly explains why they are so widely held here in the US. But they are also good!
De Grazia was a big advocate of barriques in Barolo in the late 80s and 90s, and the Terre Nere wines see some, but I find that the oak on these is usually done with a deft touch.
I haven’t had the '16 base bottling, and don’t recall that bottling showing oak in the way the single vineyards do. I checked because I wondered if they really spent money on fancy barrels for a $20 wine. Sure enough, it’s aged in 25% new oak, though the importer’s site doesn’t say what size barrel.