Tasca d’Almerita’s Rosso del Conte: 1979 – 2012
BY IAN D'AGATA |
For the longest time, Sicily’s Tasca d’Almerita’s Rosso del Conte was (along with Mastroberardino’s Taurasi) southern Italy’s greatest and most famous red wine. Besides showcasing the merits of the island’s Nero d’Avola grape, Rosso del Conte proved that Italy’s south could also produce world class, age-worthy reds. Rosso del Conte was also the first single vineyard wine ever produced in Sicily.
A view from the Tasca estate
The Estate and the Birth of Rosso del Conte
Tasca d’Almerita has a long and distinguished winemaking history. The family bought the Regaleali estate, located in central Sicily, about an hour and a half south of Palermo, in 1830. Today Tasca d’Almerita farms over 500 hectares divided up between five different properties in Sicily, of which Regaleali is one.
Count Giuseppe Tasca d’Almerita was a huge fan of the wines of Bordeaux and Châteauneuf-du-Pape and visited both regions. Tasca was convinced that Sicily could make a wine that was every bit as good as those of the southern Rhône, and set out to produce a wine that, like those, would be a blend of different grapes but from a single, very specific, high quality site.
Rosso del Conte is an iconic Italian wine, one of the first to show that southern Italy could produce world class, age-worthy reds. Rosso del Conte was tinkered with, over the years (not always succesfully, in my view,) but is back to where it should be, showcasing the heights that Nero d’Avola (and Perricone) can reach in the right hands.
