Riccardo Sgarra with Paolo Scavino

When I was a student in Boston, I tried to go to as many wine tastings as I could. At a Vineyard Road tasting I ran into Riccardo who works at Paolo Scavino. It is always a pleasure when someone who works at the winery or makes the wine comes to the tastings. It makes it a lot more personal. I met Riccardo again when I was in Barolo last summer, he gave me a tour of the winery and then we tasted some wines. They were as good as I remember.

You can check out their wines here.

At the Wine Media Guild’s recent tasting and lunch at Felidia Restaurant, we tasted 12 red wines from Sicily ranging in price from $12.99 to $159.99 for the Santa.Ne from Palari, the only wine in the group not made from native grapes.

Alessandro Dellascenza

Alessandro Dellasenza from Cru Artisan Wines/Banfi spoke the wines of Palari as well as the other wines he presented. I spoke about the remaining wines.

The Red Wines of Sicily

Frappato 2013 DOCPaterno di Vittoria, 100% Frappato Golden Ram ImportsNYC, David Rosengarten Selections, $18. Maceration is for four days with skin contact and temperature controlled fermentation. The wine spends one month in steel and one month in bottle before release. This is a well-balanced, aromatic wine with hints of cherry and pomegranate.

Frappato 2014 Planeta, 100% Frappato Palm Bay $21.99 De-stemming followed by 12 days maceration, after racking, malolactic in stainless steel. The wine should…