The Talking Cricket
Posted on 3 March 2011
Agostino Adragna, the owner of Fondo Antico, a winery in central Sicily, sent me a case of samples to try. It’s a producer I blogged on two years ago, and consistently one of my favourites in Sicily. Sicilian wine is a challenge. There’s a lot of exciting wine being made here (see my series on Etna, for example), but also an ocean of fairly indifferent commercial stuff often made in a style I dislike: jammy, overripe, alcoholic, with a fair dollop of residual sugar.
Scoring high for drinkability.
Fondo Antico is an almost perfect antidote to this. The emphasis is on balance and drinkability, and there’s no aping overseas style here. The Nero d’Avola 2009 avoids excess by keeping a medium colour, the variety’s typical herby bouquet, and a core of natural juiciness that makes a good wine at the table and beyond. It’s 12.5% alc., which by modern Sicilian standards is admirable self-restraint (and contrarily to what proponents of high alcohol claim, it still manages to be fairly ripe with no greenness). The Syrah 2009 is made in a similar medium-bodied style, although it’s less fresh than the Nero and a little jammy, but drinks well and stays at 13%. The best surprise comes from Fondo Antico’s basic red: Versi Rosso 2009 (Nero d’Avola and Merlot); although eminently simple it has lovely intense fruit, a kiss of tannins, an honest profile, and is really deliciously drinkable, something that many cheap Sicilian wines are not.
When I say ‘almost’ at the beginning of the previous paragraph, it’s because I’m quite skeptical of the upper red here. Il Canto 2006 is a Nero d’Avola at 14% that’s not overly jammy but is so completely smothered in peanut-buttery oak I find it repulsive. And at age 4, I don’t see this oak integrating anymore. A pity.
My favourite white wine from Sicily.
I remain a big fan of the whites here. The basic Versi Bianco 2009 allies the exotic peachy fruitiness of Sicilian bianco with good drive; it’s simple and commercial but good. Agostino Adragna is my personal champion of the Grillo grape – and it’s not an easy grape to champion, tending to oxidation and flabbiness. Making a fresh Grillo is a challenge comparable to making an elegant Zinfandel. Yet it’s possible. The Grillo Parlante 2009 is an impressive bottle, very well-composed on the palate with rich fruit but freshness and finesse and lightness of touch. Quite perfumed and so perhaps not to everyone’s taste but certainly an extraordinary interpretation of the grape. The Il Coro 2008 is a more ambitious Grillo, harvested later and aged in oak; it sacrifices the airiness of the above and resembles a slightly aged Riesling in its flowery overtones and petrolly flavour; a balanced, successful wine.
Fondo Antico is a bit out of the limelight but for me, an example of what Sicily can do well: drinkable, sensual, engaging wines that are a reinterpretation of the island’s traditional varieties.
Collodi’s Talking Cricket portraited by Enrico Mazzanti.
[Added 31st March 2011: Agostino Adragna clarifies that the actual owner of Il Fondo Antico is his father-in-law, the winemaker is Lorenza Scianna, and the consultant is Vincenzo Bambina.]
Disclosure
Source of wines: tasting samples from the producer.