Over the last 25 years or so, the island of Sicily has tranformed itself from an overgrown grape juice factory into a hotbed for cutting edge, superripe, fine wines. Its long, arid, sweltering summers allow for extreme ripening of grapes, thus producing ripe, dense, fruit-packed wines. In the last decade some remarkable (and expensive) Sicilian wines have stunned the wine world, but the island is also becoming known as a place for great values.
One of these is this red wine from the Colosi winery — Colosi Rosso — which retails for under 10 bucks. It has a somewhat closed nose at first, but if you give it some time it will eventually produce aromas of sour cherry, sour cranberry, and a touch of plum. In the mouth it has a ripe, fresh, open fruit flavor — cherry again, along with jammy red raspberry, black raspberry, plum, and pomegranate. It displays good depth, with mild hints of earth and tar, and has a smooth texture, with medium tannins.
I originally discovered this wine about four years ago, and though the acid and tannin levels seem to fluctuate according to the vintage (in some years, this wine may remind you of Chianti), the fruit has always been ripe and buying a bottle has never been a disappointment. Try it with chicken fricasee or chicken pot pie, or with meals based on turkey or lean ground turkey. It�s also enjoyable on its own — consider it with simple frozen-food type appetizers (hot poppers, pigs in blankets, mini-pizza). Because of the juicy jammy fruit, this might be a good bridge wine for transporting Yellow Tailers to real wine.
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This wine is imported by Vias Wine