WTN: 2013 Passopisciaro

Last night at Nico, with a version of spaghetti all'Amatriciana made with soft-shelled crab (!) as well as a springy osso buco full of green peas, we went with a Passopisciaro 2013 IGT Terre Siciliane Nerello Mascalese. From Etna but, IIRC, at the wrong elevation to meet the DOC regs, or something like that. The 2012 version of this wine was a little big and hot for my taste (15.5%, I think). This came in at 14% and was a beauty. Tightly coiled sweet raspberry fruit, flowers, dancing with bright acidity; starts showing some depth (darker fruit, anise) in the second half of the bottle. Not as earthy as some Etni Rossi, but in this case I think the more straightforward sweet fruit helped it play well with the peperoncino in the pasta. Probably for relatively short-term drinking.

[David M. Bueker]

I have a small selection of their 2014s. Thanks for a bit of producer context.

[Jenise]

Love these wines. Have some 09-11's in the cellar I should take a look at. I have a feeling they're more medium haul than long haul wines.

I've almost finished a case of the 2007 and when tasted a few weeks ago it was still standing up well. 14% alcohol but it hasn't shown hot at any time. Delicious wine overall.