Perricone (Pignatello) Wine Guide
Talking about the Perricone vine puts a little melancholy in our hearts: once it was the undisputed ruler of Sicilian red wines, while today it is in decline and we find it above all in its birthplace, the provinces of Trapani and Palermo.
Perricone was a polarizing vine, a great protagonist, not only because it was cultivated throughout Sicily, but because it was the basis of Sicilian enology. With Perricone, easy and drinkable wines were made, full-bodied reds full of color, tannins and fieryness, but it also participated massively (today much less) in the production of Marsala Rubino. Today we find it in many wines and many DOCs, but with quite low percentages. It certainly helps to give body, elegance and structure to wines, however its low acidity is problematic and is much more fragile at an agronomic level than Nero d’Avola or the usual Bordeaux varieties, since it is tremendously sensitive to attack by fungi.
History of the Perricone grape
Although it has been cultivated for centuries, there is not much official news and we only start talking about Perricone in the nineteenth century. The link of this noble grape with western Sicily, a land that we can consider its place of origin, can also be guessed from the other name by which it is known: Pignatello. In Palermo dialect, the pignatidare are the red earths on which it grows, rich in aluminum oxide, iron, manganese and clays, with which the typical terracotta pots are produced.
Organoleptic characteristics of Perricone wine
The bouquet is broad, warm, enveloping, full of red fruit, flowers, balsamic traces, pepper and juniper, light mineral notes and a hint of Mediterranean scrub. On the whole it is rich, disturbing for its depth and charm, but very mature and not exactly subtle.
On the palate it is broad, with a soft and greedy sip that still highlights this symphony of ripe cherries, salt, spices and dried flowers. It has a good body, an articulated tannic texture that offers a good range of earthy flavors and a decisive persistence. It is not an exaggeratedly dynamic wine, the sea helps to give mineral boost, but its acidity is low. The bunches of Perricone have thick skin, a lot of bloom and hide within them low acidity and abundant sugars. It is usually harvested early, in late August or at the latest in the second half of September, to maintain a minimum of acidity, but at least 250 meters above sea level are used to keep the grapes fresh, otherwise the jam danger is always lurking. Finding a well-made Perricone is rare, then finding the ideal conditions and combining them with the right sensitivity is even more difficult. Those who harvest it early give up a lot of extract and a lot of matter and therefore it is more meager, those who overdo it find a crazy concentration in the barrels.
Average price of Perricone wine
The ready-to-drink bottles have a very affordable price, around 8-10 euros. If we go up a step and focus on more structured and ambitious wines, the price takes off and even reaches 25-30 euros for the best bottles.
Which is the best Perricone in Sicily?
The positive note is the new awareness that Pignatello is affecting the potential, it is returning slowly, not en masse, but at least among the most whimsical and interesting winemakers a glimmer of light can be seen at the end of the tunnel. The Perricone Microcosm of the Barbera cellars is amazing and cheeky, which combines fruit, fabric and meanwhile gives up the slaps of salt that leave you speechless. Good, clean and ruddy the Perricone by Nico Barraco, which does not hide and offers a lot of meat. Unique and heroic is the Nivuro Nostrale by Tanca Nica, a monument to Pantelleria and to the enological intransigence that renounces any technical pretense, the result of a generous squeezing of rocks and grapes. The giant (by numbers) Firriato produces the Perricone Ribeca, very full-bodied, massive and woody, in the Bordeaux style, not very dynamic, but interesting in its own way.
Production area of the Pignatello-Perricone grape
Today it is found scattered in small doses throughout western Sicily, but its elective area is between the hills near the sea between Trapani and Palermo.
Perricone wine pairings
Spices, structure, warmth, powerful tannins and a lot of extract invite to the combination with grilled meat, barbecue dishes as if they were raining, veal with tuna sauce, gnocchi with meat sauce, chicken curry, spare ribs with barbecue sauce, baked lasagna, roast beef, pulled pork, empanadas, hamburgers, Wellington-style fillet.
