2017 La Planeta Santa Cecilia
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Tasting notes
This is the top-shelf wine from Planeta. The 2017 Sicilia Noto Santa Cecilia is a pure and exacting expression of Sicily's headline grape, Nero d'Avola. As readers know, this was a hot vintage in Sicily and in the rest of Italy. But careful winemaking and vineyard management have resulted in balanced fruit that shows crisp acidity and polished tannins. The wine maintains its elegance, but it also shows distinctive notes of its territory, which in Sicily are manifested as black fruit, Mediterranean herb, wild fennel, scorched earth, toasted almond and black olive. This is one of the great bellwether wines of Sicily: Its performance always reflects the vintage, in general.
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Monica Larner, Wine Advocate
Eric Guido, Vinous
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The 2017 Nero d'Avola Santa Cecilia explodes from the glass with masses of crushed stone, blackberries, cherries, wild herbs and hints of brown sugar. This is silky in texture with depths of sapid dark fruits complemented by sweet spice and pretty violet florals that form toward the close. The power of the warm southern coast comes through as the 2017 traverses richness with a beautiful acid-driven lift. It tapers off long to mineral-tinged wild berries framed by subtle tannins. Drink the 2017 over the near term while the 2016 spends a little time fleshing out in your cellar.