Premi

This Sicilian chardonnay tastes exactly what millions of chardonnay lovers are looking for! What a beautiful nose of super-ripe pear and mandarin orange with just a hint of flint! Mouth-filling creaminess, in spite of just 13% alcohol, married to just enough acidity to keep it beautifully cool and bight on the palate. The comes the salted-nut finish that expands and expands. Sustainable. Drink or hold.

The Donnafugata 2018 Passito di Pantelleria Ben Ryé shows that distinctive polished copper color that if you are a Ben Ryé fan like me, you will recognize a mile away. In fact, this celebrated Zibibbo-based dessert wine from Pantelleria always stands out in a crowd. It is one of Italy’s A-list dessert wines. Fruit from alberello pantesco vines planted in volcanic soils is left to dry under the hot island sun and pushed forward in the appassimento process, thanks to steady sea winds. The aromas are also specific to this wine with sweet honey, glazed almond, brown sugar and sun-dried fig. This particular vintage is a hair less fresh perhaps in terms of acidity, but it is very expressive to the senses and concentrated in terms of texture

The Donnafugata 2017 Sicilia Contessa Entellina Chiarandà offers very Sicilian aromas of candied fruit, orange peel and sweet apricot. There are creamy, sweet ricotta notes as well, with hints of cinnamon and fried cannoli crust. The hot vintage comes through in the heavy, waxy nature of this full-bodied white.

A sustainably made wine, the Donnafugata 2018 Sicilia Contessa Entellina Chiarandà shows some lightly toasted notes with nutty almond and pistachio, but the wine is also redolent of sweet apricot and candied orange peel. It is aged in oak, and a small part goes into cement. To the palate, the wine delivers a silky, medium-weight approach, but there is enough textural richness and sunny Sicilian concentration to approach full-bodied intensity.

Compared to the 2017 vintage, this wine shows better balance and more evident complexity. In fact, this is a stand-out vintage of Donnafugata’s flagship red (made with a blend of mostly Nero d’Avola with some Petit Verdot, Syrah and other complementary grapes). The 2016 Sicilia Mille e Una Notte is brooding and dark, with plum and fresh aromas of blackberry and blackcurrant. Those fruit tones are framed by baker’s chocolate, tilled earth and sweet tobacco. The wine’s 14% alcohol is balanced and carefully woven into the thick fiber and soft tannins of this full-bodied red

The Donnafugata 2017 Sicilia Mille e Una Notte is a modern and contemporary wine that piggybacks on the scorching heat and drought of the vintage to offer even more concentration and richness. Black fruit aromas of blackberry preserves and blackcurrant segue to spice, tar and tobacco over a generous, full-bodied texture. Nero d’Avola is blended with smaller parts Petit Verdot, Syrah and other complementary grapes. The wine registers a 13.5% alcohol content, but it feels like more. I suggest a ten-year drinking window for this vintage

The Donnafugata 2018 Cerasuolo di Vittoria Floramundi is an easy-drinking red that possesses the balance and fruit-forward style to pair with most of your favorite trattoria foods. The bouquet opens to red cherry and wild plum, and there are some faint earthy tones on the close. This is an accessible lean-bodied red to drink within the next few years.

The mid-weight Donnafugata 2019 Sicilia Nero d’Avola Sherazade is rich and softly textured with blackberry and dried plum. There is a lot about this wine that reminds me of a Syrah with soft tannins and a rich embroidery of ripe fruit flavors with spice and tobacco. Even the wine’s name recalls the eastern roots of this well-traveled Mediterranean variety that shares much in common with Sicily’s Nero d’Avola, but some burnt hazelnut aromas and black olive remind you of the wine’s true all-Sicilian DNA. This vintage offers especially good value.

Zibibbo is the Sicilian name for Muscat of Alexandria. Executed in a dry style, the Donnafugata 2020 Sicilia Zibibbo Lighea is softly floral and fragrantwith honeysuckle and perfumed star jasmine that is appropriately called Sicilian jasmine in Italy. This easy, lean-bodied wine has the acidity to cut through fried olives or eggplant balls with mint and breadcrumbs. You get so much easy charm in this bottle.

Strahlend helles Goldgelb. Offenherzig im Duft nach getrockneten Rosenblättern, kandierte Orangen, ein Hauch Muskat, im Zweiten Anriechen helles Karamell. Im Antrunk geschmeidig, zeigt schönen Schliff, öffnet sich auf Datteln und kandierte Frucht, im Abgang animierend saftig, trinkt sich sehr gut!

Funkelndes, sattes Rotgold. Intensive und fein gezeichnete Nase, zeigt im Vordergrund ansprechende würzige Noten nach Tannennadeln und getrockneten Orangenschalen, dann viel gedörrte Marille, etwas Feigen. Spielt am Gaumen großartig auf, präsente, klar wahrnehmbare Süße, zugleich aber auch frische Komponenten, angenehm trinkbar, hallt lange nach.