Colosi Sicilia for Wine Blog Wed #9

Colosi Sicilia 2002 ($10) -- Messina Italy. 100% Nero D'Avola. The theme for Wine Blog Wednesday #9 is Sicilian Reds. After reviewing most of the distributor books, and not finding much, a wine rep brought by a single sample to taste and said that it is her favorite spahgetti wine for mid-week. (Usually I can convince the reps to leave the bottle behind for more extensive analysis, but this wine was quickly gathered up and taken away!) She said it was great with tomato and garlic which can be a hard match for most wines. On the nose I got a somewhat musty, dense aroma that I could not pin down, though not bad, and the flavors were almost sweet with good balance and there is some tannic structure, but also there is the acidity to match well with an Italian menu. A very good $10 food wine. I would probably get bored with this wine without food after the second glass, but that's me. I would prefer to languish over an open bottle for hours after dinner versus sitting at a table surrounded by plates of food.

From Vias, the importer:

Origin: Sicilia Rosso is a tribute to the oldest and most typical Sicilian grapes, Nero d`Avola, also called Calabrese. The synonym Calabrese is an “Italianization” of the old Sicilian dialect name for the spiecies “Calavrisi” which means literally “Avolla grape” or” grape originating in Avola”. Perhaps first used in the provinces of Siracusa and Ragusa, over the years it spread to some extent throughout Sicily but not Etna. Great red wines can be made from this species. The most important and typical feature is the bouquet of red fruit, which remains after long years of aging. But the great diversity of the production areas in the North, South, East and West of the island gives special character to the Nero d`Avola they produce.