I’ve been exploring Mt. Etna wines over the past six or eight months since a revelatory tasting last fall.
Tonight I opened a recently purchased 2008 Tenuta delle Terre Nere, Etna Rosso, Feudo di Mezzo, Il Quadro delle Rose (a name long enough to be German), which was a pleasure. Popped and poured, but savored over 90 minutes or so with dinner.
At first there was a little bit of oxidation – a sort of porty/pruny note. At first I thought this was at the end of its life because that ripe, pruny element carried over a bit to the mouth and the tannins seemed completely evolved. I figured I ought to drink up my other bottle – or that this one had somehow been oxidized.
But that blew off. The nose become more earthy and, with extended air in the glass, this freshened up. Instead of prunes, it took on a fresh plum note – the kind of plum that is dark and ripe on the outside but green, firm and a bit tart on the inside. The tannins turned firmer, too. Along with this was a wonderful earthy quality. Volcanic? Or is that just the power of suggestion, knowing the source and the soils?
This was a perfect match for paella with chorizo. Yum! (I finally managed to char the bottom of the paella. Yay!)
This is everything I love in the Etna wines – that reminder of nebbiolo and pinot, the taughtness (tannin and acidity), the piercing aromas of those high-acid grapes, yet with the unmistakeable mark of very warm days that yield ripe, roasted fruit notes.
I’m not a big fan of Marco di Grazia’s Barolo line-up, but he certainly has done a good job with this, his own property, at the other end of the country, in Sicily.
~92 points. The longer I sipped this, the more upside it seemed to have.