This new collaboration between Donnafugata and Dolce & Gabbana is a study in classy restraint. It's a blend of Nerello Mascalese from Etna's northern slopes and Nocera from Contessa Entellina, hills that sit almost equally inland from Palmero and Marsala.
Read MoreDonnafugata 2016 Etna Rosso Sul Vulcano: The Donnafugata labels are so vivid. This new wine’s is as fun as ever! The heaping pile of rocks seeming to symbolize Mount Etna almost looks like a pile of Nerello Mascalese grape pomace. Moreover, while the wine is as elegant as the lady on the label, I am sure that were I to inhale enough fumes from Etna, my hair might stand up as high, too! Anyway, the fancy ‘do makes me think of old, European aristocracy, and this wine is certainly as noble.
Read MoreDonnafugata 2016 Cerasuolo di Vittoria Floramundi: This wine smells of warm, red clay soils or even a hot, terracotta pizza oven. It also smells of old, wooden spice racks and dried tomatoes. The taste is every bit as savory.
Read MoreThis wine defies my typical usage suggestions for sweet wines. I often think of sweet wines as “dessert in a glass”, or something that can replace dessert when thirst still calls yet the tummy is too full for more food. One of the primary differences here is that the Ben Ryé possesses a decadently sweet attack yet a surprisingly dry and clean finish.
Read MoreDonnafugata 2015 Grillo Sur Sur: This wine’s color looks pale, like lemon pulp in color. It’s savory on the nose with notes of crushed slate, grapefruit zest and veggie broth. This is a relatively lean Grillo – and all the better this, rather than some of the variety’s more blowsy expressions – that is nonetheless character-filled.
Read MoreThis varietal Muscat, locally called Zibibbo, starts with serious aromatic pop. It’s plump with lime zest, pink grapefruit, white peppercorn and Mediterranean scrub-baking-under-a-hot-summer-sun. The palate is crisp, dry and light. The combination is so drinkable that you just might think the liquid is evaporating from your glass.
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