For many years, I have held a bit of a judgmental view on Nero d’Avola as a varietal. I've often found that wine produced from this grape variety has tended to be either very simple, fruity and quite frankly: generic. Or secondly, a style that is extracted, rich, dense, often using an abundance of oak, particularly new oak, resulting in something often akin to red wine soup. I found it to be a battle to even get through a glass, let alone a bottle of those wines. So I assumed that Nero d’Avola is just not a great grape.
Until one day, a colleague from the wine industry mentioned a Sicilian winery called Marabino to me, in a very enthusiastic manner. The next thing I knew, I had samples arrive at my home, and there I was, tasting through the range of Marabino…completely amazed by the balance, complexity and purity, especially of the reds, made entirely by Nero d’Avola? I needed to know more.
Not so long after that, I was on a plane to visit Pierpaolo Messina and his team at Marabino. Marabino is located among the rolling plains and hills of Pachino, which is pretty close to Noto in Eastern Sicily (White Lotus Season 2 fans, I see you!). The landscape is dotted with historical sites and small villages and plenty of agricultural land, divided up with dry stone walls. This region is in close proximity to both the Mediterranean and ionian seas.
At Marabino, the winery is a beautiful red building as painted on the Rosso di Contrada label, with all the vines on the same property, encircling the cellar. The vines are grown as bushes over 29 hectares with a mostly limestone rich soil series. All the farming is biodynamic and all the work is done by hand. On my visit, we tasted through tanks, concrete and bottled finished wines. There I was again, sipping the ‘Rosso di Contrada’, completely dumfounded: how have I never tasted Nero d’Avola like this before? Better yet, why are more people not making it, in this style? This wine, was energetic, fresh, detailed and refined. It was crunchy and tart and importantly it was not underripe and green. This wine, made me stop in my tracks: I had been wrong about this grape. As I tasted through more of Pierpaolo’s reds (all of which are 100% Nero d’Avola), I realised this was a grape wasn’t capable of making good wines, it was capable to make generic or actually great wines!
The winemaking here is pretty low intervention, the wine itself does not scream to you: natural wine even though the winemaking is so. The Marabino wines are pure, classic, serious; they stand in the face of all of the preconceived styles I had assumed of Nero d'Avola. My curiosity (and taste buds!) had been peaked and I began to ask more questions to find out more; why these wines tasted so good, and how could they be so fresh in such a warm climate too? It's not uncommon for the summers here to be regularly reaching late thirties and early forties (degrees centigrade). It's particularly dry as well.
So the first thing, it comes to the soil series which is limestone rich. Wines from limestone soils (when grown and made with care) tend to have have bright, fresh acidity and a firm structure that result in an age worthy potential too. Due to the pH of the soil being higher, the vines are able to uptake more nutrients and retain high acidity levels. From a growing perspective, limestone is like a sponge. It has amazing water holding capacity, but also allows drainage as well. So the rain that falls throughout the colder months is held in the soil, which then supports the growing season,
The next key factor is decision making in the vineyard. Growing the vines as bushes plays a vital role in the hang time of the grapes at Marabino. The canopy provide shadow and protection from the intense sunlight and heat and the bushes are very low to ground, meaning the fruit set hangs just above the surface of the soil. This means that the fruit is kept at the coolest possible temperature, because as the Scirocco blows, it compresses down any cool air to as close to the ground as possible…where the fruit is. These factors are key for extending the hang time. Harvesting usually kicks off in mid to late Sept and can run throughout October (these are not early picked grapes). The result is wine that is complex and physiologically ripe, but also balanced and fresh.
Pierpaolo decides to keep his wines in stainless steel or concrete, rather than using oak as he strives to preserve the bright, fresh, vertical expression of this grape and place. The only wine that spends time in wood (large, used oak) is Rosa Nera, his rose, to amplify the fruit flavours and to create more texture. Overall, the focus is produce linear, vibrant wines that can stand the test of time and ultimately are wines that you want to drink a bottle of, not just a glass.
This visit showed me I had misjudged this grape and it wasn’t the first time I had do so. I've come to the conclusion that there actually aren’t “bad” or “lesser” grapes. It really comes down to the producer and how that person understands the varietal: how to grow that grape and the decisions that they make in the cellar in order to really showcase its innate beauty. All grapes have the capacity to beautiful or to make beautiful wine. They need to be guided from growing into production in a way that really enhances and showcases that, just like these ethereal Nero D’Avola from Marabino.
