New Arrivals – Natural Wines from Sicily

Wine drinkers, be worldly and try new things!  Sicily is not just Nero d’Avola and mass-produced plonk.  The largest island in the Mediterranean also has artisanal wine makers dedicated to making the best expressions of the grapes that grow naturally in its soils.

We just picked up two great examples from super-star natural wine importer Joe Dressner (you may recognize the last name from the “Louis/Dressner” that is on the back of so many of our bottles).  

Arianna Occhipinti makes a wine from Frappato in the southern region of the island called Vittorio.  Frappato is one of those indigenous grapes that you find in little pockets all over Italy and nowhere else in the world.  This one is unique to Sicily, and is generally blended with Nero d’Avola or other grapes.  Anyway, Occhipinti’s 2006 is a big, fresh wine loaded with cascading berry flavors and full of that natural vibe. It’s maybe the best wine in the shop to drink with pizza.

Fonti’s 2005 Etna Rosso “I Vigneri” is from the mountains of northeast Sicily, where volcanic soils and higher altitudes can result in some pretty serious wines.  Again, this wine is all about indigenous grapes, in this case Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio.  The tannins may remind you of Barolo, the purity of fruity of Burgundy, and the slight herbaceousness of the Loire Valley.  This is serious, complex wine that will keep evolving as you drink through the bottle.  Not as easily drinkable as the Frappato, but with a little patience one that you will grow to appreciate more.

These are hand-crafted, organic, natural wines made in tiny quantities, so you do have to pay a little bit more for them.  These are not every-night wines but something just to try when you want a new taste experience.  In any case, we hardly have any available to sell – but don’t worry, they certainly aren’t going to go fast!  For more regular drinking from Sicily, try the honestly made Terre Nere Etna Rosso, 2007, or the mass-produced but tasty and affordable Calea Nero d’Avola.

Wines mentioned in this article:

BURGUNDY AT UVA

We are proud of all our wines, but maybe proudest of our special selection of wines from Burgundy, France.  What's so special about Burgundy?  Mostly, it's just straight deliciousness.  Partly it's the grapes -- Burgundy is the natural home of not only the greatest red wine grape, Pinot Noir, but also one of the two greatest white wine grapes, Chardonnay (the other is Riesling).  It's also how the wines can be enjoyed at a variety of price points, from honest Bourgogne Rouge at $20 a bottle, when you want simple, juicy pleasure to...well, it can really get frightfully expensive (and Burgundy does have a problem in the under $20 department -- hopefully the falling Euro will rectify that soon -- in the mean time go South to the Cotes du Rhone). Then there's the nuance of the different vineyard sites, the fact that the wines are great both young (when they're bright and vigorous) and old (when they're mellower but full of complex earthier and foresty flavors), that they're lovely with food, and that the region is full of dedicated wine-makers, many of whom made wines with minimal intervention from organically farmed grapes.  But mostly, I'll say it again, it’s that the wines taste good!

People object because they say that the wines from Burgundy are "fickle". That buying burgundy is like crossing a "minefield".  This notion is greatly exaggerated, and just as true for many other wine regions, but it’s not totally false.  For consumers who are new to wine, who aren't really sure what they like or dislike, purchasing a Burgundy can be risky. If you haven't tasted a decent number of Burgundies, I don't recommend just walking into our shop and grabbing something off the shelf for $45. Burgundy (like Bordeaux and many other wines) does often go through a "dumb" phase, in between its youthful exuberance and its mature greatness.  If you buy and open wine during this phase, you waste your money.  We know which of our wines are dumb.  Also, some, but certainly not all, Burgundy offers pleasures that are rather subtle.  If your palate needs more, ask us to steer you in the right direction.

And older bottles -- and we have more than a few selections -- are always scary (not just from Burgundy).  Your odds of getting an off bottle, whether from oxidation or otherwise, increase significantly as the wine ages.  Fortunately, we are obsessive about storing our wines well and sourcing them from reputable sources.  Also, we are generous with refunds and store credits when you get unlucky and open an off bottle (see our return policy here).

A word on allocations.  Most of the great Burgundy that is imported to the U.S. is not available for purchase off the shelf (except sometimes at greatly inflated prices). There just isn't enough, and what does come in gets eaten up by people in the wine industry and their favorite customers. We have very good relations with a number of excellent Burgundy sources, and often get small allocations of these rare Burgundies.  We sell most of these wines before they appear on our list of regular inventory.  If you are interested in receiving offerings of these allocated wines, please send us an email.

To see our very extensive selection of Burgundy, including great every-day drinkers, mature gems and new releases of highly allocated wines, click here .