Centonze

It is a family business in the full sense. Giovanni founded it; Nicola, who studied oenology at the well-known school in Conegliano in the Veneto, makes the wine and consults for many other estates in Sicily and elsewhere in Italy; Carla, a wine technician, runs the family’s wine shop in Marsala with her uncle Gino; and Giovanni’s granddaughter Martina is studying oenology in Marsala and is a trained sommelier.

That consulting work is the key to the business. Nicola spends the year in other people’s vineyards across the island, which is how he knows where the best organic fruit for each variety is grown and who farms it well. When he chooses vineyards for the Centonze label he is choosing from a very large map, and he can change his mind each year.

Nicola has been doing this a long time. In 2009 he was already the oenologist at Tenuta di Serramarrocco, and his reports to the importer go back through every vintage since. Of 2011 he wrote that across Sicily yields had fallen, for reasons ranging from abandoned vineyards to poor management, but “there was no decrease of the grape yield in the estates I manage.” That is the advantage of a winemaker who also looks after the vines.

The labels carry the onza, or oncia, an old Sicilian coin that stood for prosperity.

Cerasuolo di Vittoria comes from the south-east corner of Sicily, around the town of Vittoria, on calcareous soils. The town was founded in 1606 by Vittoria Colonna Henriques, daughter of the viceroy of Sicily, and the wine is as old as the town. The name comes from cerasa, Sicilian for cherry, for the colour. In 2005 it became the first and still the only DOCG in Sicily.

The blend is Nero d’Avola for depth and Frappato for perfume. Centonze’s is 60 per cent Nero d’Avola and 40 Frappato, from organic vines about 25 years old, fermented in stainless steel on yeasts from the area and aged six months in steel and six in bottle. There are about 5,000 bottles. It is the bright, floral, sour-cherry side of Sicilian red, served a touch cool.

The straight Nero d’Avola comes from the west, on sandy clay and limestone, and is made the same simple way. Nicola wants the grape to taste like itself.

The family also bottles a Frappato on its own, from the same calcareous ground near Vittoria: light red, floral, raised only four months in steel. The aim, in the importer’s words, is to express “the nobility and the elegance of this important Sicilian grape variety.” Frappato was long treated as the minor partner in Cerasuolo. Drunk alone and a little cool, it shows how fine the grape can be.

The house philosophy, as the importer sets it down: “to respect the grape variety without upsetting its balance,” and to work with yeast selected in the area where the vineyards stand. Nicola aims for few interventions, each one well done, and for wine that is genuine, drinkable and of even quality from one vintage to the next.

His harvest reports show how closely he watches. In 2012 he noted that “the Nero d’Avola and Frappato vineyards are certified organic” and that the reds had “an excellent intensity and colour.” In 2013, a cooler year, he dropped fruit to balance the vines and said: “This harvest is more ‘northern’ than Sicilian.” In 2014, with a wide swing between day and night temperatures, rare for Sicily: “The reds are fabulous!”

He likes Sicilian wine best when it keeps its freshness. After 2011 he observed that the recent vintages had been mild and the wines “a little less ‘Sicilian’ in a positive sense,” with more elegance and less weight. That preference runs through the whole range.

Picking runs in a long sequence: Zibibbo at the end of August, Grillo and Nero d’Avola through September, Frappato last, at the end of September or into October.

This harvest is more “northern” than Sicilian.

Nicola Centonze, on 2013

Most of the range is Sicilian varieties: Frappato, Nero d’Avola, Grillo and Zibibbo, the island’s name for Muscat of Alexandria. Since 2016 there has also been a Syrah, a grape the importer describes as now well settled in Sicily. And there is Amaro Rizza, made from twelve herbs gathered on Favignana and Marettimo, two of the Egadi islands off Trapani.

What sets these wines apart is accuracy. A family of trained oenologists picks organic fruit from the right places, ferments it cleanly, and bottles wines that taste of the grape and the island. These are the bottles you can open on a weeknight with grilled fish or a plate of pasta and never think twice.