20 Sep Please The Palate Wine of the Week: Feudo Disisa 2020 Granmassenti Perricone, Monreale DOC, Sicily

When most people think of red wines from Sicily, they think Nero d’Avola. But Sicily is home to many more incredible red grape varieties and one of them is Perricone. I fell in love with this easy and drinkable wine with distinctive aromas as I sipped the Feudo Disisa 2020 Granmassenti Perricone, Monreale DOC, Sicily, the Please The Palate wine of the week.

About Perricone

Perricone (also known as Pignatello) is the grape that was used to make Marasala Ruby. More than 100 years ago, there were 2500 acres of Perricone grown. But as interest in Marsala Ruby dwindled, producers started to pull out the Perricone vineyards. Today there are less than 500 acres planted but luckily, over the last 20 years, producers have started planting it again. Perricone is a late-ripening grape with typical aromas of black cherry, rustic forest berries, violets, rose, smoke, vanilla, dried thyme, and pronounced tannins.

About Feudo Disisa

Located in the heart of the Monreale DOC in the northwest part of Sicily, Feudo Disisa is a single-estate, family-owned winery. The property originally had been donated to the Archbishop of Monreale by King William II and was owned by the church for 500 years. The Di Lorenzo family have been proprietors of the land for almost 200 years. For years, the Di Lorenzo family sold their grapes for bulk wine. But, in the 2000’s they began producing wine, this time with a focus on quality over quantity.

Tasting Notes

The meaning of Granmaassenti is a big mountain of money. It relates to Lu Banco di Disisa, an old Sicilian legend about a treasure in Disisa, which is written in Sicilian dialect on the label.

The 2020 Granmassenti Perricone is aged in two and three-year-old French barrels. It has a distinctive earthy, rustic nose. There are initial aromas of forest berries and forest floor, licorice, and roses and there are violet notes as the wine opens up. The wine has dusty tannins and mouthwatering acidity.

Food Pairing

Perricone is a wonderful wine to pair with grilled meat, barbecue dishes, veal with tuna sauce, gnocchi or pasta with meat sauce, lasagna, roast beef, pulled pork, and more! I enjoyed it with Eggplant Cotoletta, a play on Cotoletta alla Milanese but made with eggplant instead of veal.