Alessandro di Camporeale, Sicilia DOC (Sicily, Italy) Nero d’Avola 2018

 I couldn’t believe how good this wine was when I tasted the 2017 at the estate in May of 2019, but I stuck to my guns and scored it at 93—the highest score I’ve ever given to a wine based on Nero d’Avola.  To digress in candor, one never quite knows whether the setting or one’s mood can permit perfect objectivity, and though I’ve been reviewing wines for more than 25 years, I still respect that fact, and remain guarded as a result.  Well, as it turns out, the 2018 is at least as good, and I tasted it in quarantine lockdown in my kitchen (rather than at the beautiful estate) after bottles had been shipped across the Atlantic in mid-summer.  As I tasted the 2017 from magnum, whereas this was a 750 ml bottle that had just been badly jostled, I can’t quite compare them directly, but I am sure that this is – again – at least as good, if not better, as I now judge it to be.  It shows even better acidity than the 2017, which brightens the black- and blue-toned fruit beautifully, resulting in a wine that shows the gutsy core of Nero d’Avola in an amazingly fresh and bright profile.  Subtle savory, leathery accents lend depth and complexity, and super-fine tannins provide grip but also accentuate – thanks to their fine grain – the impression of “fine-ness.”  This is so far removed from what I usually taste out of bottles reading “Nero d’Avola” that I feel obliged to liken it to something else for the benefit of readers, and – believe it or not, I’d liken it to Côte-Rôtie.  This is especially unlikely because this estate also makes great Syrah, and this wine tastes more like Côte-Rôtie than does the Syrah.  But, as it turns out, that’s mostly because the Syrah tastes more like Hermitage.