Pietradolce Contrada Rampante Etna Rosso 2016
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Parker
Robert -
Spirits
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Bright scarlet in color, the wine shows notes of red fruits, earth, and minerality. On the palate the wine is elegant with an excellent sense of balance and finesse.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Etna Rosso Contrada Rampante shows girth and power to the mid-palate. This is a dense and fleshed-out red wine from Etna made with fruit from 90-year-old vines. However, like other expressions from this vintage, I found there to be a lot of immediate intensity up front, with less persistence and fiber in the long run. This seems to be a shared characteristic of 2016.
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Wine & Spirits
This wine opens with high-toned scents of cherry blossoms and offers juicy red-plum flavors with notes of baking spice, smoke and tobacco. Aged for 14 months in French oak barrels, it retains some wood flavors and a rigid structure, needing time in the cellar to integrate.
Other Vintages
2018-
Spectator
Wine -
Enthusiast
Wine
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Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert
At the heart of their philosophy lies a deep love and respect for the land on which we depend, getting the best from traditional methods while using with wisdom the latest developments in grape growing and wine making without compromising the environment that gives life to their passion.
Extending across the variable volcanic soils of the slopes of Mt. Etna at some of the highest vineyard altitudes in all of Europe—up to 3,300 feet—Nerello Mascalese is one of Sicily’s most noble red varieties. It makes a beautifully aromatic, firm, cellar-worthy but pale-hued red often comparable to a fine Burgundy or Barbaresco. Somm Secret—Nerello Mascalese takes its name from the black color of its grapes, nerello, and the Mascali plain between Mt. Etna and the coast where it is believed to have originated.
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.