The 2017 Sicilia Nero d'Avola Alto offers the extra plumpness and sweetness that you can expect of this vintage and this scorching hot summer season. Dark cherry and blackberry aromas are followed by layers of black olive and fennel. There is some exit spice, tar and camphor ash on the close.

The 2016 Sicilia Nero d'Avola Alto presents dark fruit intensity with dried blackberry and black currant. Mild tones of spice, leather and crushed stone appear at the back. This is a slightly more elaborate expression of this mighty Sicilian grape that has been deftly produced in a manner that highlights the soft and more succulent side of the grape. The wine ages in barrique for five months and is then transferred to botti for an additional seven months of aging. Some 20,000 bottles were made.

Elsewhere in Italy, 2014 was a difficult vintage. Not in Sicily. The 2014 Sicilia Nero d'Avola Alto is a complete and round wine with thick density that is highlighted by pretty aromas of cherry, blackberry, leather, tar and balsam herb. There's a good amount of sweet spice definition as well. The wine sees 12 months in oak of various sizes.

Tenuta Rapitalà's 2013 Sicilia Nero d'Avola Alto is a darkly concentrated red wine with a pretty bouquet of dark fruit, plum, spice, tobacco and toasted spice. This is a bold and brooding Sicilian wine with evident oak notes that add extra softness and aromatic intensity. There is a slightly gritty quality to the tannins but otherwise the wine offers bold lines and juicy dark fruit flavors. It is extra succulent, rich and well suited for near term drinking.