Winemaker Notes
Intense ruby red in color.
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
This supercomplex wine is multilayered and deep. The nose starts with cinnamon, earthy strawberries, boiled beets and violets plus restrained graphite and smoky tones. Full-bodied. It displays an amazing savoriness with velvety tannins and refreshing acidity, precise and chewy with great integration. Tense, polished aftertaste. Drink or hold.
-
Decanter
This 0.7ha plot in San Lorenzo produces an average of just 750 bottles every year, but it's absolutely worth tracking down. While the regular San Lorenzo 2022 is ripe, breezy and finessed, this Piano delle Colombe bottling is darker and more powerful in nature. Earth, dark chocolate and black and red cherries mingle with mint and spice scents. Very deep and fresh, there's a line of balsamic herbs running through the palate, dense in sweet dark fruits and chocolatey touches. The tannins are refined, and the lightness of touch belies this wine's brooding power. Wow!
-
Vinous
The 2021 Etna Rosso San Lorenzo Piano delle Colombe is intense and youthfully backward, grumbling up with a tightly coiled yet complex bouquet. Exotic spices emerge amidst a mix of dried berries, with shavings of cedar and hints of forest floor that ground the experience. It’s elegant and harmonious throughout. Textures of pure silk gain lift through brilliant acidity as a coating of chalky minerals saturates and ripe wild berry fruit cascade throughout. This tapers off with a piercing layer of fine tannin as violet inner florals and notes of tart blackberry linger on. This is the most complete interpretation of Piano delle Colombe I’ve experienced. In a word: superb.
Rating: 95+
Beyond the usual suspects, there are hundreds of red grape varieties grown throughout the world. Some are indigenous specialties capable of producing excellent single varietal wines, while others are better suited for use as blending grapes. Each has its own distinct viticultural characteristics, as well as aroma and flavor profiles, offering much to be discovered by the curious wine lover. In particular, Portugal and Italy are known for having a multitude of unique varieties but they can really be found in any region.
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.