Nero d’Avola in Italian means “Black of Avola”. Avola is a decent size seaside town in southern Italy. From some of the photos I’ve seen on the internet, it looks like a beautiful place. I can’t believe I didn’t check this out before. Here I was thinking it was just a grape variety, originally from Sicily, that was made into inky coloured, bold, full bodied red wine.
Even to use the word ‘just’ shows my naivety of the variety. Apparently it is the most important grape variety in Sicily! I don’t think it’ll be long before a well deserved imprint of the ‘boot’ of Italy will be obvious on my behind.
It’s quite a pretty, deep and youthful darkish purple. It smells rich with yummy black fruit aromas. It’s not as dark fruity on the palate though. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still pretty bold and generous but it has more juicy boysenberry, blueberry and plum fruits with an almost a spicy cherry character on the finish.
Now, it’s pretty full on but not full bodied. Marnie Roberts, the winemaker, has done a mighty fine job with getting the balance right this variety. It’s bloody delicious and so very easy to drink. As far as the Peters household is concerned, it has a drinkability factor of 10/10.
Region: Riverland, SA Price: $22 (ridiculous value) Source: Thank you Marnie
Words from a Wine Glass 