Donnafugata Sedàra 2021

What a pleasure it is to uncork a chilled bottle, especially in the summer, and experience an explosion of fruit aromas right from the start. Made principally from the Nero d'Avola variety, plus some small amounts of Cabernet, Merlot and Syrah, Sedàra glistens in the glass, radiates on the nose and is instantly enjoyable. Sedàra is one of the historic labels from Donnafugata, a winery which is a real reference point on the island and produces over a dozen different wines including reds, whites, rosés, sweet wines, a sparkling one, Grappa and olive oils too. Sedàra is a young wine that's expressive and complex, and owes its richness to the fruit, the terroir and ageing in concrete tanks, with no use of oak. It gets rounded off in the winery for a sufficient length of time, and comes to us showing all of its vigour, yet with an elegance and finesse all of its own. Sedàra is seductive. Its nose is really surprising for a young wine. Fresh vigorous fruit prepares our senses for picking up all the nuances that will come through. It's a mixture of black, red and yellow fruit, that juicy fruit so typically Sicilian, a fusion of blackberries, black cherries and melon. The character of Sicily's wines is quite exceptional and not surprising, with a volcanic land mass surrounded by sea! The contrast between sea and land, dark earth and sunlight, gives the wine a certain richness. We can smell in Sedàra not only the dry earth but also the dampness of a walk through the forest after rain, a variety of fruits and flowers, green peppers, aniseed and earthy notes. A very complex nose. On the palate it's spirited, dry, sinewy, proud of its bravado, of its youth, but well-mannered, pleasant and rounded. One of those wines which we start off by saying that it's not bad, not bad at all... and we finish off by getting to the end of the bottle without realising it, nor having given ourselves enough time to put all those sensations into words. You'll want to come back to Sicily.