Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
This whole-bunch nero d’avola is so vibrant and pure. It shows blueberries, lifted lavender, raspberries, citrus and dried oregano. Medium-bodied with laser-sharp acidity, fine but grainy tannins and a driven finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Amphora Project NDV is a Nero d'Avola that spends six months on skins in amphorae. Hickey claims that the variety's raspberry fruit is too dominant without the skin contact. Instead, the wine is floral and herbal on the nose, a bit Campari-like even, with hints of orange zest and coriander. Medium-bodied, it's smooth and streamlined in the mouth, finishing with a silky texture and peppery, zesty overtones.
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Wine & Spirits
Decant this to soften it up. It takes time to move beyond the scents of violet candy and blueberry fruit leather toward fresh wild-berry flavors. It’s spicy and tight, with notes of tomato and black pepper. For orecchiette with sausage and broccoli rabe.
Boldly opulent and robust, Nero d’Avola is Sicily’s most widely planted red grape. Nero d’Avola performs well both as a single varietal bottling and in blends. It loves hot, arid climates and Sicily's old vines are aptly head-trained close to the ground, making them resistant to strong winds. A few pioneering producers in California as well as Australia farm Nero d’Avola in the same way. Somm Secret—Nero d’Avola's other name, Calabrese, suggests origins from the mainland region of Calabria.
Known for opulent red wines with intense power and concentration, McLaren Vale is home to perhaps the most “classic” style of Australian Shiraz. Vinified on its own or in Rhône Blends, these hot-climate wines are deeply colored and high in extract with signature hints of dark chocolate and licorice. Cabernet Sauvignon is also produced in a similar style.
Whites, often made from Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc tend to be opulent and full of tropical, stone and citrus fruit.