SANTA CECILIA NERO D’AVOLA, NOTO DOC

Planeta

APPELLATION

Sicilia (Noto DOC)

GRAPE VARIETIES

100% Nero d'Avola

WINEMAKERS

Patricia Toth

TECHNICAL DATA

Acidity
3.52
Alcohol
14.25%

2020

93POINTS

Wine Advocate
JUNE 2023
2020

93POINTS

JamesSuckling.com
SEPTEMBER 2023
BACKGROUND

Planeta’s journey began at Sambuca di Sicilia, on the estate owned by the family since the 1600s. Here, three enthusiastic young Sicilians, Alessio, Francesca and Santi Planeta, under the guidance of Diego Planeta, began their winemaking venture in the mid-1980s. Subsequent years were spent matching the extraordinarily diverse Sicilian soils with both indigenous and international varieties. Planeta today encompasses six distinct wine estates in five regions across Sicily; Ulmo at Sambuca di Sicilia, Dispensa at Menfi, Dorilli at Vittoria, Buonivini at Noto, Sciara Nuova on Etna at Castiglione di Sicilia, and the newest addition, La Baronia at Capo Milazzo. Each vineyard site is carefully cultivated with grapes that best compliment the local terroir.
Santa Cecilia is an expression of elegance, power, balance and eminence of the unique aromas of Sicily, and today is the reference point for red wines produced from indigenous Sicilian grapes.

TERROIR & VINTAGE NOTES

Extensive research revealed Noto as the best terroir to cultivate Sicily’s most important grape variety, Nero d’Avola. The DOC Noto insists the variety originates here, at the southern extremity of Sicily. Noto was the third stage of the Planeta Family’s journey in Sicily. The estate was founded in 1998, which coincidentally has always been called ‘Buonivini.’ The soft hills of Buonivini, white limestone soil with an abundance of small stones, breezes arising from the meeting of two seas, create the best conditions to make the vines grow successfully. Here Nero d’Avola and Moscato grow together with almonds and olives, symbolic plants of the Mediterranean location.
The 2020 vintage saw well-timed rainfall and a particularly mild summer throughout Sicily. This brought about a memorable harvest, somewhat lower in quantity but always of perfect quality. At Noto, and the vines reached this period in perfect health with slow intense maturation. Nero d’Avola developed with a leafy cover in good health, with average-to-small grapes, the result being a wine – still being refined – with very balanced tannins.

WINEMAKING

Harvest took place at the end of September. Grapes were gathered by hand and immediately transported to the winery. After pressing and destemming, the crushed grapes were placed in stainless steel tanks to begin alcoholic fermentation. The grapes were stirred three times a day with very short periods of pumping over, so that the skins were disturbed as little as possible in order to enhance the complexity of the wine. Fermentation lasted 7–8 days, then tanks were filled with wine from the same vine of origin, followed by a long maceration of 30–35 days with the skins still within the wine, finishing with racking off. Malolactic fermentation took place in stainless steel, followed by decanting.

AGEING

The wine matures in French oak barrels (10% new wood, 20% second use wood, 35% third use wood, 35% fourth use wood.)

TASTING NOTES

Balsamic, grassy and notes of many different fruits. Opens with notes of Mediterranean macchia and aromas of seaweed piled on Sicilian beaches. The red fruit is sour cherry and very ripe blackberry; the citrus fruit is bergamot and bitter orange. The spices are carob flour and incense. On the palate the ripe fruit combines well with the wood tannin in accompanying a very densely textured tannin but open and measured to the structure of this wine with its complex and unmistakable personality.
Pair with red meat, well-matured and marbled; even better with more intense flavors like game, lamb, pork or even sliced sausage.

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