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Product Name
Vintage
Price
Varietal
Country
Region
Appellation
Size
Additional Discount
Original Item
2012
$22.84
Nero D'avola
Italy
Sicily
750ml
N/A
Similar Price
2020
$23.94
Nero D'avola
Italy
Sicily
750ml
12B / $23.46
Better Price, Better Score
2021
$16.20
Nero D'avola
Italy
Sicily
750ml
12B / $13.59
More Details
Winery
Duca Di Salaparuta
Vintage: 2012
2012 has, so far been a positive year for wineries around the world. While it may be a little too early to speak of the wines being made in the northern hemisphere, European and North American wineries have already begun reporting that their harvesting season has been generally very good, and are predicting to continue with the kind of successes they saw in 2011. However, 2012 has been something of a late year for France, due to unpredictable weather throughout the summer, and the grapes were ripening considerably later than they did in 2011 (which was, admittedly, an exceptionally early year). French wineries are claiming, though, that this could well turn out to be advantageous, as the slow ripening will allow the resulting wines to express more flavour and features of the terroir they are grown in.
The southern hemisphere has seen ideal climatic conditions in most of the key wine producing countries, and Australia and New Zealand particularly had a superb year, in particular with the Bordeaux varietal grapes that grow there and which love the humidity these countries received plenty of. Also enjoying a fantastic year for weather were wineries across Argentina and Chile, with the Mendoza region claiming that 2012 will be one of their best vintages of the past decade. Similar claims are being made across the Chilean wine regions, where Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon had an especially good year. These two grape varietals also produced characterful wines on the coastal regions of South Africa this year.
Varietal: Nero D'avola
One of the key flagship grape varietals of the beautiful island of Sicily is Nero d'Avola, a black skinned grape which is recognized as being one of Italy's most important and long lasting indigenous grapes. Often, wines made from the Nero d'Avola varietal are compared with Australian Shiraz wines, as they share the same spicy, peppery and fruit-forward notes, and are easily drinkable with a sunny, juicy character which makes them ideal for pairing with a wide range of foods. The Nero d'Avola has been grown in the Sicilian region of Avola for centuries, but has more recently been cultivated in California and elsewhere in the New World, where it thrives in arid landscapes and hot climates. As such, the ancient influence of this grape varietal is beginning to find fans all over the globe, and is likely to spread to even more countries in the near future.
Region: Sicily
The island of Sicily is one of those wine regions which seems to be designed for the production of quality wines. Not only does it have extremely fertile soils, helped by volcanic activity of such peaks as Etna, but the climate is absolutely ideal for the ripening of beautiful grape varietals, with almost year-round sunshine and cooling sea breezes. Sicily has been using such factors for growing grapevines for thousands of years, and is a truly ancient wine region steeped in tradition. Wineries on the island make a wide variety of wines, which are much loved for their ability to express plenty of exciting fruit flavors and sunny, tempting aromas, but Sicily is most well known for the dessert and fortified wines based around the port town of Marsala.
Country: Italy
For several decades in the mid to late twentieth century, Italy's reputation for quality wines took a fairly serious blow. This was brought about partly due to lack of regulation in certain regions, and too much regulation in others. This led to several wineries in the beautiful and highly fertile region of Tuscany making the bold move to work outside of the law, which they saw as responsible for the drop in quality in Tuscan wines. They believed that they had the expertise and the generations of experience necessary with which to make truly excellent, world class wines, and set about doing just that. These 'Super Tuscans', as they came to be known, quickly inspired the rest of Italy to improve their produce, and now, Italian wine producers in the twenty-first century are widely recognised to be amongst the best in the world. Regulation and law began to change, and wine drinkers across the globe woke up to the outstanding wines coming out of Italy, which are continuing to improve and impress to this day.