From Caltanisetta comes this warrior of nero d'avola, a strong contender for the Sicilian full bodied lightly smokey red wines. The soil, the climate and two years in small oak casks (barrique of 225 l) put's their marks on this wine. It's only 30% of wine which has been in the oak casks, but the presence is quite heavy of the those 30%. The soil consists of sedimentary rocks and limestone, chalky. The altitude of the vineyard is around 150 meters above sea level.

The color limpid, almost crystal clear. It's garnet red with a similarity to pomegranate seeds, it's quite transparent colour. The consistency is consistent, due to fact that the wine flows slowly and heavily with slow and regular tears and thick legs.

In the nose it's quite intense impressions of raw meat, wet mushrooms-leafs-soil, flowers like violet, some black pepper and smoke/tobacco at the end. The conclusion of the olfactory complexity is that this is a complex wine, thanks to the rich range of odorous nuances from different groups of scents. It has an elegant bouquet, of fairly good intensity. The wine bouquet is floral, fruity, grassy, mineral, frank, and spicy.

It's dry with a strong pseudo-warm sensation due to 13% alcohol (I think it's more) and the good balance among various components. The flavours I felt was strawberry, wood, wet soil, dark chocolate, black pepper, cherry, almonds, hazel nuts, and raspberry. A soft wine, due to a good alcohol and glycerine content. I would describe Maretima as a quite tannic wine, as it gives a perceivable and pleasant dryness and rough sensation. Regarding saltiness this wine is between quite tasty and tasty, a fairly clear and pleasant mineral taste. The body is full, it has a good structure. A wine where the soft and rough sensations are in balance. I perceived clear and well-characterised tastes, tactiles and taste-olfactory sensations. The taste-olfactory persistence is around 8 seconds according to my watch. A fine wine, mature and harmonious.

This nero d'Avola is best suited on the table with wild meet, grilled or roasted beef, veel, long seasoned cheese lika parmesan, pecorino and some grana padano. It could be good to some pieces of dark chocolate.

This 2005 you can have another two or three years without problem.

To me it's a true classic Nero d'Avola!


Leif Karlsson