Donnafugata Sherazade 2019

Donnafugata Sherazade 2019

Donnafugata Sherazade is one to brighten your day. Brilliant ruby red colour with violet reflections. Opens with a pleasantly fruity nose of red plum, cherry and light notes of spice and balsamic. The aromas follow through to a fleshy and full-bodied palate, which reveals extraordinary freshness and fine-grained tannins.

Ageing potential: 3–4 years.

Fun Fact: Sherazade, fascinating female protagonist of the Arabian Nights has a fruity flesh voice, wrapped in a spicy drape, that tells you the fairy tale of this masterpiece of Oriental literature. Persian king Shahryar married a new virgin each day and beheaded the previous day's wife so that she would have no chance to be unfaithful to him. He had already killed 1,001 women when he was introduced to Sherazade. Sherazade agreed to spend a night with the king, but like Baldrick she had a cunning plan. She told the king a thrilling story all through the night, stopping in the middle with the excuse that they had run out of time. The king spared her life that day to hear the end of the story. The next night, she started a story more thrilling than the last, which was never finished, and continued this pattern for 1,001 nights until she had no more stories to tell. But by then the King had fallen in love with her and decided not behead her.

100% Nero d'Avola. The fruit for this wine comes from the Contessa Entellina estate, where Donnafugata began, and neighbouring territories in southwestern Sicily. The vines grow at 200–400 metres altitude on a hilly orography with clay loam soils rich in nutrients and limestone. The area experiences mild winters with little rainfall and warm, dry and ventilated summers. The climate has substantial difference between daytime and night-time temperatures. 

Manual harvesting of the fruit, vinification in stainless steel with maceration on the skins for about 6–8 days at a temperature of 24–25 °C. After malolactic fermentation, the wine ages for 4 months in tanks and at least 3 months in bottle.

AWARDS & ACCOLADES

- 92 POINTS

"The main matrix is delicious, light and performing on the nose in the floral notes of lavender, hibiscus, agapanthus and acacia. The gentle background tells of rose petals and geraniums in bloom. Medium body, lightly extracted soft tannins and a pleasant, highly drinkable finish. Drink now."

- 90 POINTS

"The mid-weight Donnafugata 2019 Sicilia Nero d'Avola Sherazade is rich and softly textured with blackberry and dried plum. There is a lot about this wine that reminds me of a Syrah with soft tannins and a rich embroidery of ripe fruit flavors with spice and tobacco. Even the wine's name recalls the eastern roots of this well-traveled Mediterranean variety that shares much in common with Sicily's Nero d'Avola, but some burnt hazelnut aromas and black olive remind you of the wine's true all-Sicilian DNA. This vintage offers especially good value."

"This Nero d'Avola offers aromas of ripe black-skinned berries and Mediterranean brush. The juicy palate features dried black cherry, licorice and black pepper alongside velvety tannins." — Kerin O’Keefe.