Tenuta delle Terre Nere - Etna Rosso 2023
Price: $29.99
| Producer | Tenuta delle Terre Nere |
 | |
| Country | Italy |
| |
| Region | Sicily |
| |
| Subregion | Etna |
| |
| Varietal | Nerello Mascalese , Nerello Cappuccio |
| |
| Vintage | 2023 |
| |
| Sku | 36609 |
| |
|
Tenuta delle Terre Nere Description
The 2022/2023 winter was mild, temperatures rarely below freezing point.Very limited snow at vineyard altitudes. Rainfall, from January through March decidedly below average. Understandably, budding occurred roughly 10 days before its time.
Spring was cool. Its outstanding feature, however, was the opulence of its rainfall: 400 millimetres was never recorded or heard of. Flowering was overwhelmed by this perfect storm, and though we acted quickly and repeatedly, we were hit by an attack of downy mildew of such virulence as had never been seen on Etna and elsewhere. With us much of South-Central Italy up to and including Tuscany; in a minor way not sparing parts of Southern France as well as Bordeaux. Many properties lost their entire crop. Remarkably, the Eastern, seaward, part of the appellation, usually much more rainy than the Northern or Southern ranges, was almost entirely spared: rainfall there was less than half of what it was here in the North. The Southern Etna D.O.C. lost roughly 30-35%. The Northern slopes lost well over 60%.
The extended Spring rains were followed by a record breaking summer drought: from July through September we only had 60 mm of rain, less than half of what we had in 2022, which was already considered a drought year.
We thus passed from spring floods to a water stressed summer. Even our old vines suffered under these conditions, possibly weakened by the downy mildew attack. Under severe pressure the vines underwent a delay of all physiological ripening phases. Veraison, for instance, was a good two weeks late and uneven.
James Suckling: 95 Points
"The brightness, lovely density and focus come through clearly here with an almost pinot sensibility and a long finish. It's polished with fine tannins and a brilliant texture. Mostly grapes from San Lorenzo and Calderara Sottana vineyards. Drink or hold."
