Colomba Bianca Vitese Syrah 2024
£11.45
The wine
Abundant notes of ripe red berried fruit and blackberry are complemented by delicate violet aromas. Juicy and moreish, with supple tannins enveloping concentrated red berry flavours and a subtle hint of black pepper on the finish.
Syrah arrived in Sicily relatively recently but has taken to the island convincingly, giving a darker, more peppery wine than it does in the northern Rhône and a more savoury one than in Australia. The Vitese range is organic, and this sees a period in oak that adds spice without burying the fruit.
The producer
Colomba Bianca
View all Colomba Bianca winesEstablished in 1970, Colomba Bianca is the largest grower cooperative in Sicily and the biggest producer of organic wine in Italy. More than 1,800 hectares are farmed organically, with a further 7,500 planted to indigenous and international varieties across the west of the island.
Sicily is well suited to organic growing for reasons that have nothing to do with fashion. The climate is hot and dry, humidity is low and the sea breezes keep the vineyards ventilated, so the fungal pressures that make organic viticulture difficult in northern Europe are largely absent. What the island has instead is a wealth of native grapes: Grillo and Inzolia for whites, Nero d'Avola for reds, Zibibbo which is Muscat of Alexandria, and Carricante and Nerello Mascalese from the slopes of Etna.
Despite the scale, the stated philosophy is micro-viticulture and micro-winemaking, working parcel by parcel rather than blending by the tank. Head winemaker Mattia Filippi tailors the range across five specialist wineries, and the results are consistently better than the cooperative model usually suggests.
