One of the country’s best Neros in fine form. This Eldorado Road Comrade Nero d’Avola 2019 is a success because it’s deceptively complex.
In the vineyard, Paul & Laurie have now worked out that if they strip all but the top 3 leaves off the vines just prior to flowering, it has a ‘remarkable effect’ with a lower pH and better colour. Then, at harvest, the fruit is progressively picked over a 3 week period, with seven different ferments.
Each of the ferments is different, all wild, and all commenced with a cold soak. Ferments included:
- 100% whole bunches
- 40% whole bunches
- Whole berry, early pick (12.8 Baume)
- Whole berry, late pick (13.9 Baume)
- Whole berry, late pick ferments with extended maceration (21 days) in custom made French oak Puncheon fermentors.
All that winemaking layering is then enhanced by 18 months in older oak. You know what though? This is a simply beautiful wine.
Mid-weight and dark fruited, it’s perfectly weighted, with this flourish of blackberry fruit and a Pinot-like, sappy whole bunch edge, complete with medium-grained tannins. Graceful, gently meaty, mouthfilling. Lovely elegance, yet it’s still ripe with that trademark black jelly bean Nero flavour. Think the red-fruited beauty of modern Australian Grenache, but more moderate, with more sappy tannins and juts of Pinot-like meaty bits. Strictly speaking, it’s not a profound wine, but it is profoundly right.
Very good. Would love to put this up against the best of Sicily. Look out Planeta et al!
Eldorado Road Comrade Nero d’Avola 2019. Best drinking: I like it now and over the short/medium term (so drink this decade). 18.5/20, 94/100. 13.1%, $39. Eldorado Road website. Would I buy it? Yes.
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