Sunday Drinking: 25 June
Sunday Drinking is back by popular demand*. This week, I’m looking at a light Sicilian red that has a special place in my heart.
On Friday I wrote that “a bottle of chilled red had on holiday in Sicily with my wife will always be more delicious than first growth claret drunk surrounded by hedge fund managers.” I was referring to a specific trip we took back in 2014. It was our first holiday without our daughter and spent five days in the west of the island. It was partly a research trip for my first book so we visited two Marsala producers, Florio and de Bartoli, and spoke to a historian of the region Giacomo Ansaldi who runs a hotel in a converted winery.
But we spent most of it it in a little resort town of San Vito lo Capo in the far western tip eating a lot of seafood and ice cream, walking on the beach, befriending stray dogs and enjoying everyday wines. Our particular favourite was frappato, a red grape which produces a light red that is uncannily flavoured with strawberries and pomegranates. It’s one of those wines, like a nice Beaujolais, that pretty much goes with everything though I remember it being particularly nice with a salad of tinned tuna, fennel and blood orange.
Frappato comes from Vittoria in the south east of the island and, along with nero d’avola, it’s one of the grapes that goes into Cerasuolo di Vittoria. It’s now planted in the sultry plains of Western Sicily too though in my admittedly limited experience it tends to taste better from its home region. Indeed the restaurant staff in San Vito lo Capo described the wine, an Avide 1607 (that’s not the vintage), as imported as it came from the other side of the island.
Perhaps the most famous producer of frappato is Arianna Occhipinti - a natural wine heroine who featured in Stanley Tucci’s recent series on Italy. I’ve tried quite a few of her wines over the years and though they smell wonderful, I always find them a bit disappointingly flat to taste. Perhaps it’s something I’m not getting or they’re wines that reveal themselves over long leisurely lunches.
Occhipinti’s wines aside, more frappato is affordable. The Wine Society does a tasty example from Mandrarossa, which I’ve just checked is from near Agrigento so bang goes my east/ west theory. Anyway, today’s wine does come from Vittorio. It’s called Santa Tresa Frappato Rina Russa 2022. Checking through my notes, I realised that I have tried this wine before but it seems unusually delicious in this vintage: very pale in colour with scents of strawberry and blueberry and a touch of orange peel. I found it sweetly ripe and deliciously savoury at the same time. You could drink it out of a wine glass but I think it’s much nicer out of a tumbler with an ice cube in it. My wife who is normally very abstemious had two glasses and there was nearly an incident with the pork schnitzels. I can think of no higher recommendation.
Santa Tresa Frappato Rina Russa 2022 is currently £10.99 at Waitrose but from 5 July – 1 August will be going down to £8.99. Buy all you can.
*Seriously, Andrew Spencer got in touch on social media and asked for more Sunday Drinking recommendations.
Surprised it’s at 13% for a wine of that character/purpose. Would have thought 11.5% or so would be perfect. 🤷♂️
If I recall correctly, "Tommasi" didn't actually have a name until encountered by a certain English writer on a research holiday 🤔