Winemaker Notes
Bright, intense ruby red colour, with alternating sensations of mature fruit and sweet, elegant notes of spice. Explosive flavour and full body, yet very fresh, bursting with charisma
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Sweet and sour-cherry with walnut and toasted-oak aromas that follow through to a full body with juicy fruit and chewy tannin on the palate. Savory. Smoky meat at the end with lovely fruit. Drink now or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Here is another pure expression of Nero d'Avola that aspires to bring us the most sophisticated and nuanced approach to a grape that is too often relegated to basic workhorse functions that are far below its potential. Wines like this have successfully carved out a space for high-end Sicilian reds in retailers across the world. The Feudo Maccari 2018 Sicilia Saia is proud and generous, with thick layers of dark fruit folded into soft oak and spice.
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Wine & Spirits
Saia hails from Noto, Sicily’s southeastern tip, where low-lying, alberello-trained vines bask in the heat and wind, yielding a wine with concentrated flavors of dark plum, black olive and dried herbs framed by leathery tannins. It’s a robust and savory rendering of nero d’Avola, those intense flavors balanced by lively acidity and bright salinity.
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Vinous
The 2018 Nero d'Avola Saia is maturing beautifully. Dark and rich, a waft of minty herbs gives way to steeped plums and hints of balsamic spice on the nose. It’s fleshy yet energetic, with an intense wave of ripe black fruits balanced by brisk acids and saturating saline mineral tones. Sour citrus provides lift. This lingers long and pleasantly bitter with echoes of blackberry and clove, leaving a chewy sensation atop a bed of fine tannins.
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.
A large, geographically and climatically diverse island, just off the toe of Italy, Sicily has long been recognized for its fortified Marsala wines. But it is also a wonderful source of diverse, high quality red and white wines. Steadily increasing in popularity over the past few decades, Italy’s fourth largest wine-producing region is finally receiving the accolades it deserves and shining in today's global market.
Though most think of the climate here as simply hot and dry, variations on this sun-drenched island range from cool Mediterranean along the coastlines to more extreme in its inland zones. Of particular note are the various microclimates of Europe's largest volcano, Mount Etna, where vineyards grow on drastically steep hillsides and varying aspects to the Ionian Sea. The more noteworthy red and white Sicilian wines that come from the volcanic soils of Mount Etna include Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio (reds) and Carricante (whites). All share a racy streak of minerality and, at their best, bear resemblance to their respective red and white Burgundies.
Nero d’Avola is the most widely planted red variety, and is great either as single varietal bottling or in blends with other indigenous varieties or even with international ones. For example, Nero d'Avola is blended with the lighter and floral, Frappato grape, to create the elegant, Cerasuolo di Vittoria, one of the more traditional and respected Sicilian wines of the island.
Grillo and Inzolia, the grapes of Marsala, are also used to produce aromatic, crisp dry Sicilian white. Pantelleria, a subtropical island belonging to the province of Sicily, specializes in Moscato di Pantelleria, made from the variety locally known as Zibibbo.