Very pertinent t article Walter @Walter_Speller_Lond1 Can Etna's Nerello Mascalese age? | Jancis Robinson
Thankyou.
My own experience based on Terre Nere back to 2008, including various of the single vinyard specials is mixed.
Unexpectedly it’s the special cuvees that are most problematic. They seem to fall apart a bit - into un-integrated heavy fruit and wood - rather than meld into something seamless. A friend independently came to the same conclusion. They taste like something that was overworked and intensified in the making.
However the simple Etna Rosso does very well indeed - becomes even more elegant and lovely - heading towards ethereal. The fruit just gets clearer, purer, more subtly indefinable. This is based on 2015 and 2014 - 2014 is particularly good, as you’d expect. These are not showing any obvious signs of being old - still basically primary fruit. Even non-wine geeks notice the 2014 and 2015 and say how much they like it!
To the Burgundy comparison - does Nerello become a complex soaring burgundy? Not yet, that’s for sure. But it does become a better version of what it was one day 1. I suspect it’s more like Gamay in its evolution - ie it does last, it does develop and improve. But it’s not undergoing the kind of metamorphosis that great burgundy does. To me great Pinot (or Cabernet) starts out a simple caterpillar and at its best will sleep, then re-emerge transformed into a butterfly.
Maybe that’s a learning about the nature of Nerello Mascalese - it is a lovely grape, best left to its own devices. That is, to be a light, upper register, fruit flower. And if you try to intensify, make it denser, it’s not playing to its strengths. The less “made” Etna Rosso wins over the amped up specials.
Also worth noting that Terre Nere is not a low sulphur wine, unlike Passopisciaro, which may affect its ageing differently.
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Thanks, Matt. That’s useful.
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