Daddy Winebucks

It took me eleven wines to get to some juice from Italy.  Sicily to be more specific…

I’ve only tried a few of these over the years, most recently on the advice of the sommelier at Osteria Mozza (boy, I’m obsessing on them lately).  I liked that wine and I liked the one I tried last night:

A Nero d’Avola (Sicily’s “most popular red grape” as it’s touted on the world wide interweb) from Archeo.

What caught my eye though was the prominent front of bottle sticker that said, “Ruggero di Tasso – Winemaker.”  I pictured some “rugged” Italian looker, fit and tan, perched above his vineyard overlooking the Adriatic Sea.  But a Google search turned up nothing on the man who would be Ruggero di Tasso.

So lets just call him the Willy Wonka of Sicily who stays in his caves all day, punching down his wines before settling them down to rest in barrel.  Then one day, he’ll affix special golden tickets underneath the Romanesque label on his bottle, and the lucky few who receive them will be whisked away to Italy to meet the man the townspeople have seen only in shadow.

But I digress…

The wine has a very pleasant nose of chocolate covered raspberries.  I’ll take that a step further.  Do you remember those jellied candies that your grandparents kept out when “company” came over?  Well if you grew up anywhere near Brooklyn you would.  That’s what it smelled like.

There is a nice mouthfeel to the wine, a little tart (which I happen to enjoy) and good balance.

The finish is not dramatic but this is a solid effort that will go with many foods (I had Ravioli with a garlic tomato sauce and it was just fine).

$4.99

DOUBLE