Ottomarzo 2012, Tenute Dettori, IGP Romangia Rosso, Sardinia

Ottomarzo 2012, Tenute Dettori, IGP Romangia Rosso
14.5%
€29.50
Available from 64wine, Glasthule

Stunning wine. Mellow ripe soft dark fruits with hints of liquorice, warm earth and herbs; full and rounded, voluptuous and warming with real complexity.

I would suspect this would go nicely with most red meat dishes. I had mine with roast autumn vegetables (sweet potatoes, butternut squash, shallots, peppers etc.) with a cashew nut dressing; it all worked very well.

Tenute Dettori are pretty hardcore natural winemakers. The back label to this wine boasts ‘No synthetic chemicals, yeasts, emzymes, or any other winemaking aids. No wooden barrels, no fining and no filtration. Every bottle can be different. Leave to oxygenate in the glass. Their website explains that in 2008 they preferred to lose almost their entire crop to mildew rather than spray. ‘It is better to lose a season’s grapes than pollute the earth’. All of their vineyards and wines are monovarietal. The Ottomarzo is made from the Pascale grape. It doesn’t appear my new edition of Oz Clarke and Margaret Rand’s book, Grapes & Wines; in the Oxford Companion the entry merely states ‘Sicilian speciality dark grape’. According to Wikipedia, Pascale di Cagliari is grown only in Sicily and usually blended with other grape varieties. I really enjoyed the Tenute Dettori Cannonau, but was less sure about the Vermentino.