2002 Rosso del Conte

The 2002 is another of the more virile, masculine Rosso del Contes in this lineup. Firm tannins frame a core of dark fruit, tobacco, earthiness and leather. The summer saw a period of cold, damp weather followed by five days or so of uninterrupted heat, which shocked the fruit and halted the ripening in many spots, leaving the grapes with tannins that weren’t fully ripe. Further time in bottle should help smooth the tannins to some extent. If that happens, this could turn out to be a surprisingly outstanding wine. Anticipated maturity: 2011-2021. Tasca d’Almerita is one of the leading estates in Sicily and Italy. Tasca’s top red, Rosso del Conte, is among the handful of wines from southern Italy with a long, distinguished track record that goes back several decades. This tasting with proprietor Alberto Tasca provided an incredible opportunity to re-visit a number of older, and now exceedingly rare, vintages. It also proved the significant potential of both Nero d’Avola and Sicilian wines in general. I can only hope one day there will be many more properties making wines of such distinction and age-worthiness. In particular, readers lucky enough to own any of the older Rosso del Contes should be thrilled! For most of its life Rosso del Conte was predominantly Nero d’Avola, one of Sicily’s most important indigenous red grapes (the other being Nerello Mascalese) with a touch of Perricone, another native red variety. In 2003 the estate began adding a small percentage of their best barrels of international grapes to the blend in an attempt to give the wine more shades of complexity. The use of international varieties peaked at about 30% in 2006. During these years Tasca d’Almerita also conducted extensive work to gain a better understanding of the qualities of the various clones of Nero d’Avola. With the 2007, the estate has scaled back the use of international varieties to roughly 10%, while Nero d’Avola and Perricone once again make up the majority of the blend at approximately 75% and 15% respectively. Rosso del Conte is made from a number of different vineyards, but the core of the wine comes from San Lucio, which was planted in 1959 with Nero d’Avola and Perricone. Some of the estate’s other vineyards include Piana Margio (planted in 2000), Cordicella (planted in 1976), Ciminnita (planted in 1974), Case Vecchie (planted in 1974 and 1976) and S. Anna (planted in 1976). All of the vineyards sit at roughly 470 meters above sea level with south to southeast exposures. The relatively high altitude of the vineyards is a major reason Rosso del Conte retains excellent acidity and freshness, even in the hottest years. The exact vineyard blend depends on each vintage, and it is not a foregone conclusion that all of the parcels will be used every year. For example, the 2003 Rosso del Conte was made only from San Lucio. In most years, the harvest takes place around the middle of October. Early vintages of Rosso del Conte were aged in chestnut barrels. I am too young to have tasted the wines when they were first released, but by all accounts the wines were extremely hard and difficult to appreciate. What a difference a few decades makes! In the early 1990s the estate transitioned to a combination of 30 and 60-hectoliter Slavonian oak casks and smaller French oak barrels. By the mid 1990s the conversion to 100% French oak was complete. Throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s the percentage of new oak increased from 50% in 1994 to 100% for vintages 2004 through 2006. Similarly, fermentations evolved from lengthy periods of contact on the skins in cement with no temperature control to shorter fermentations in stainless steel with temperature control.

The 2002 is another of the more virile, masculine Rosso del Contes in this lineup. Firm tannins frame a core of dark fruit, tobacco, earthiness and leather. The summer saw a period of cold, damp weather followed by five days or so of uninterrupted heat, which shocked the fruit and halted the ripening in many spots, leaving the grapes with tannins that weren't fully ripe. Further time in bottle should help smooth the tannins to some extent. If that happens, this could turn out to be a surprisingly outstanding wine.