Sicilian Reds

We generally think of Sicily as producing gutsy, rustic and cheap wines. However, the recent spate of investments by big brands has meant that the quality of these has risen and many have dipped their toes into producing something a little better. As a brand owner, once you’ve decided who your target consumer is, what they like to drink and how you’re going to make it, reliably, year on year, you need to worry about what they’re going to like next.

Sicily started from a low entry level and most wines we can buy here are under £5, but it is possible to spend more money and get something better. Not because it’s got Reserve on the label, but just because it’s a better wine. Of course, without the “Reserve” prompt and without in store sampling, the only way that we can tell whether a wine is good, on the shelves, is by the price.

Marks & Spencer’s Corte Ibla, Single Estate Nero d’Avola 2005 is expensive at £9.99. Buying this wine blind is a real act of faith in M&S. A tenner is a lot to spend on Sicilian wine and Nero d’Avola isn’t a grape you find outside Italy, so I’m not sure how M&S sell any of it at all. Except that I tasted it and now I’m telling you how good it is and you’ll rush out waving your tenner and give it to your friends, who will tell their friends and so on.

The wine was head and shoulders above anything else at the tasting. It’s not a fine or elegant wine, but it really gets your senses going. It has intense colour, a toasted coconut and chocolate smell, with some blackcurrant and a full, but dry, taste. The taste lasts and lasts, with chocolate and coconut and the alcohol is warm at 14%, but this is Sicily, so that’s fair enough.

Inycon Estate Shiraz 2005, which is £7.99 from Morrisons was a creditable second. A perfect example of a wine designed so that the loyal consumer can trade up. The standard wine is £4.49 but the “Estate” wine is £7.99 and is clearly better. This one had a rich, almost syrupy, blackcurrant smell. It was fruity in the mouth but definitely dry, with a taste at the end that reminded Alex of Werther’s Orginals.

Cusumano, Benuara Nero d’Avola/Syrah 2005 is £8.49 from Oddbins, or £6.79 as part of a 6 bottle case. A lot of these wines were tricky to pronounce, which may put off some consumers, but maybe they don’t want to attract people looking for anglicized wine. It smelt of fresh brambles and had more tannin than others, and begged for food.

Canti Merlot is £4.48 from Tesco and smelt of purple Mulberry Fruits, if they still make them. It lost points for hot alcohol. Inycon’s standard Merlot, at £4.49 from Tesco smelt unattractively of soap and wallpaper paste, with a dull taste. Our least favourite wine was Sedara Nero d’Avola, from Majestic, but it was faulty, smelling of hair remover and dead mouse.

Sicilian Reds

© Copyright 2007 Mel Jones