Sicily, Italy

Lamoresca

Elsa 2020

£40

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LAMORESCA
Elsa 2020
Sicily, Italy

This riserva of sorts comes from a selection of the best grapes Filippo harvested and is mostly composed of Nerello Mascalese with a little Frappato and Nero d’Avola in the mix. Depending on the variety, the grapes spent between a week and two months on the skins, followed by a year in cement vats and a further two years in bottle before release. Time has rendered a deep, savoury and complex wine with mature fruit, herbs and brine combining to beautiful effect.

Nerello Mascalese, Frappato, Nero d’Avola


ABOUT THE PRODUCER

Filippo Rizzo’s farm can be found lost amongst the rolling hills of Sicily’s rugged interior, the only reference point being the peak of Etna peering over the hills, somewhere in the distance.

Filippo grew up in the closest village to here, San Michele di Ganzaria and having run restaurants overseas, in 2000 he returned home to purchase a small piece of land home to an ancient variety of olives that give the farm its name. Today he farms a total of five hectares of vines, planted amongst twenty five hectares of olive groves, prickly pear, fruit and almond trees over found hundred metres above sea level. The elevation results in large differences between daytime and nighttime temperatures – a real boon in this typically Mediterranean climate.

The vineyards are planted over clay, sandstone and silex and have been worked organically from the outset. This is a farm where biodiversity is truly cherished and in recent years, Filippo has begun replanting forests of carob, eucalyptus and ginesta next to the vines. Believing that good wine is made in the vines, in the cantina Filippo’s work is decidedly unfussy, resulting in pure, rustic and nourishing wines which speak loudly of Sicily.