Il Passo Nerello Mascalese
- Region
- Sicily, Italy
- Vintage:
- 2022
- Producer:
- Vigneti del Salento
Wine Description:
This Nerello Mascalese is bright ruby red in colour. On the nose, there are intense aromas of red fruit, combined with spicy notes of coffee and chocolate. On the palate, it is vibrant and well balanced with soft tannins and a long, silky finish.
Immediately upon arrival at the winery, the grapes were pressed and underwent a long maceration on the skins. Fermentation was carried out on the skins, in stainless steel vats at 26°C with regular pump overs carried out three times per day. The wine was kept in stainless steel vats until the end of the malolactic fermentation, which took place at 20 degrees. The wine was transferred into new French oak barrels, where it was aged for four to six months prior to bottling.Producer Description
Vigneti del Salento, is part of the Fantini group, founded by Valentino Sciotti in 1994 to produce top-quality wine from Abruzzo and (later) southern Italy as a whole.
These Puglian wines are made at two wineries in the province of Taranto, on the western flank of Salento, by resident winemaker Danilo Gizzi and consultant winemaker Filippo Baccalaro. Filippo, a native of Piemonte, has been working in Puglia for almost two decades. He was originally attracted to the region by the rich, ripe flavours of the grapes that grow there. Filippo consistently aims to capture these flavours with minimal use of technology but a lot of know-how.
The resulting wines are expressive of their site yet also carry the style of Fantini’s other exceptional wines. The whites are crisp and fresh, while the reds are soft and generous. The flagship wine is the ‘Vigne Vecchie’ Primitivo di Manduria, sourced from old bush vines aged in new French oak for 12 months. It boasts intense aromas of cherries, blackberries and spice coupled with velvety tannins and a lingering finish.