Tasca D'Almerita, 'Rosso del Conte', Contea di Sclafani, Sicily, Italy, 2018

Overview of the Wine
Tasca d’Almerita’s story begins in 1830 when brothers Lucio and Carmelo Mastrogiovanni Tasca purchased almost 3,000 acres in the Regaleali region of Sicily. The website notes, “introducing the most modern agricultural technology available into the Sicilian backcountry.” Ten years later, the dowry of Lucio’s wife included Villa Camastra, today’s Villa Tasca, the Palermo residence of the Tasca d’Almerita family today. In 1882, Richard Wagner finished the 3rd Act of Parsifal while a guest at Villa Tasca.

In 1950, the redistribution of land during Italian agricultural reform reduced the Regaleali estate to 1,240 acres. Four years later, the current vineyards were planted. In 1960, the family planted their first white grapes, including catarratto using the guyot pruning system. In 2018, Tasca d’Almerita is the first wine estate to be certified Viva—SOStain.

Sustainable.

Winemaker
Laura Orsi

Grape / Blend
53% Nero d'Avola, 47% Perricone

Origin
Sicilia, Italy

Winemaker's Tasting Notes
San Lucio is the first major vineyard identified in 1959 on the Tenuta Regaleali estate, which produced the first and subsequent editions of Rosso del Conte.
Here, like a natural extension of the territory, two varieties coexist: Perricone and Nero d'Avola. They have similar vegetative cycles: they are relatively late-ripening grapes, ripening on average between the end of September and the beginning of October. A faithful expression of its terroir, the high hills in central Sicily, on the aromatic level, Rosso del Conte never exudes overripe notes, while ensuring full phenolic ripeness. Exuberant, vibrant, and energetic in its
youth, it develops a velvety tactile relief with aging, without losing its tone and flavor progression. Throughout its long history, it has undergone various stylistic variations, particularly in its aging technique: chestnut barrels, Slavonian oak, small French oak barrels.

94 Points - James Suckling
Ripe strawberries with blackberries and hints of tar. Full- to medium-bodied with powerful tannins and a chewy and juicy finish. Very structured. One to age in your cellar. Still very young. Try after 2025.

91 Points - Wine Spectator
A balanced red, with good freshness and tension, featuring fine, taut tannins that back dark, focused flavors of crushed blackberry, black plum reduction, cured tobacco, vanilla and minerally accents of smoke and iron. Chewy finish. Nero d'Avola and Perricone. 

Product size: 750ml