Sicily is also the greatest producer of wines, above all, the famous and excellent Nero d’Avola, also called: Black of Avola, Nero d’ Avola wine or Nero d’Avola from Sicily. Sorry for all these words, but I want to introduce this Sicilian product to many people from all over the world and I don’t know how they search this product. In reality, there are several kinds of Nero d’Avola wines in Sicily with different flavours and with colours which goes from brilliant red to deep black.
This is because the original Nero D’Avola wine is often blended with other wines coming from Etna mount or from the district of Ragusa, especially from the city of Vittoria. Nero d’Avola is called like this because it is obtained from a selected variety of black grape, namely the black grape of Avola, in the south of Sicily. Avola is a beautiful sea village included in the fabulous Noto Valley, filled with likewise fabulous beaches. I’ll discuss about Avola in a post I’ll write very soon. Nero d’Avola appeared for the first time many centuries ago.
The black grape was likely to be imported by the Phoenicians in the XII century. Some vines were already found at the top of Etna Mount in the prehistoric age. Nero d’Avola is related only to the namesake Sicilian city of Avola , it represents the main regional product, here. Strangely, it is also called “Calabrese” or, rather, Calabrese of Avola. The origin of this name is probably due to three hypotheses: the Greek name “calauris” , the dialectal name cala ausisi, namely grape of Avola, or the Sicilian traders who exported the black grape to nearby Calabria during the Middle Age. The territory where Nero d’Avola is well rooted is just Avola, where the black grape has been grown since the XV century.
The settlement of this wine in the above mentioned town was allowed thanks to the Iblei mounts, which, working as shields for the provinces of Ragusa, Catania and Syracuse, protected the underlying valleys from winds and made the winter weather fairly mild. However, the widespread production of Nero d’Avola dates back only to the 1960s, when some Sicilian companies realized that, lowering the sugar degrees of the wine, they can get a more alcoholic table wine with high chances to be appreciated and exported all over the world. In the past, due to the high alcohol content, Nero d’Avola , was used only to make lighter wines.
Nowadays, the alcohol content of Nero d’Avola is around the 15 percent and it is exported to several foreign countries, such as Australia, the United States, Malta, Turkey and South Africa. This Sicilian wine is also regarded as the Prince of Sicily and often paired with Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. According to an article in The Guardian, by Fiona Beckett, it is also considered better than Malbec, rather, it is the Sicilian answer to Malbec.
This wine is so famous that it was also reviewed by The New York Times.
The review was written by Eric Asimov.
Today, Nero d’Avola is produced throughout Sicily, but its taste is different. In the centre of Sicily, the wine is more scented and with a clear tone of red fruit, in the Western Sicily the wine is more acid and strong, while in the East of Sicily, the wine is more refined and elegant, with a clear aroma of dry fruit. Pure vinification enhances its quality, making it a highly structured wine with a strong personality and a big and intense strength, suitable to be stored and improved in oak barrels.
The young Nero D’Avola has a ruby and intense red colour, with vivid and purple reflections. The old Nero d’Avola has a different aroma, more complex and richer of other scents, with violet colour and a spice taste, as a pepper, licorice, cloves and vanilla and red fruits, such as plum, cherry, blackberry, currant and raspberry. Sometimes you can also perceive a taste of chocolate and tobacco, due to a high content of tannins.
It is advised you drink it at a room temperature, around 20 degrees, poured into a wide glass, in order to let wine oxygenate. This wine is also suitable to be aged. The aging of Nero d’Avola can also reach ten years. You must match this wine with red meat, cheese, roast chicken, furry game, pot roast and grilled red tuna.
The price of Nero D’Avola depends on its age. The youngest wine has a cost of 7,50 euros, while the oldest Nero d’Avola, just the one that reached the highest time of aging can also have a price of 35 euros.
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Drank only one time per day, after dinner, this red wine has some good properties for your health. A good glass of red wine, especially Nero d’Avola, proved to kill Helicobacter pylori, the main responsible of stomach diseases , such as gastric ulcer and cancer. Don’t’ drink over 350 millilitres per meal because you risk the above mentioned benefits to be zeroed.
If you need a deepen guide about Nero d’Avola, I suggest that you visit WineFolly, the website written and managed by certificate sommelier Madeline Puckette.
Sources of the images:
http://l-arte-della-cucina.webnode.it/
Rosalba Mancuso is a freelance journalist born in Sicily. Passionate about her loved island and with extensive writing experience, Rosalba worked as a contributor to the main Sicily’s newspapers and as a bilingual Italian – English writer. Thanks to her skills, she also founded four websites in English. On Sicilyonweb, Rosalba tells every corner of her beloved Sicily. Furthermore, she writes this blog thanks to your help. Rosalba, in fact, earns a small commission, with no cost for you, when you book your travel or buy products through the affiliate widgets or links you find in her posts.
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