Wine and Food

“P”, Azienda Agricola Guccione, Perricone, Red-wine from Italy

5,5 points

Uh, this one is sour. Really sour. This is, frankly speaking, the first reaction upon tasting this wine. But you could probably also just call it: “I wasn’t expecting that.’

“P” by Francesco Guccione is an extraordinary, if not an unusual, wine. Not a wine for beginners, as I provoked on Instagram when I posted a photo of the label. P stands for the Perricone grape variety, also known as Pignatello, which, as far as I know, only grows in Sicily. Find out more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perricone.

The wines of Francesco Guccione are perhaps the most radical organic wines from Sicily, where you can find some “world-famous” organic wine producers, such as Occhipinti and COS. Everyone who read my last post about COS (Zibibbio in Pithos, COS, 2016), knows about my friendly acquaintance Joanna. When we spent a very nice evening in the wonderful garden of Bar Sabadi at Modica, she introduced me to Francesco Guccione’s Trebbiano, which is truly wonderful – such a fantastic wine. Because of this, I decided to order two or three bottles of each of his wines, and I tasted “P” in recent days.

Admittedly, I was not ready for this sour experience. Mostly because, thinking of other Pignatello wines, I assumed that I would get something rather full-bodied and voluminous. Usually one expects to taste the dry, hot soil of Sicily. And indeed, that’s what happens with “P” as well, but in a very different way. You can really taste the motto of the winemaker: “earth – heat – water and light,” he describes on his webpage as the four elements of biodynamic wine-making. The fifth is the work of the winemaker.  Btw: there is no vintage on the label, so I guess it is wine of 2015. The vineyard is located in the northwestern part of Sicily, not too far from one of the most beautiful churches in the world: the cathedral of Monreale. Anyway, the wine is very fresh, clear and in a way, elegant too, if I can also say that –  and here I apologize for the choice of words – it has something very peasant – in a positive meaning – too.

I once described a wine from Spain (Les Paradetes, Conca De Barberà, 2009), which really tasted something like a sheep’s stall. There’s a very narrow ridge on which these winemakers walk, growing these native and robust vines and adding all their passion to create rare and extraordinary wines — but these wines are also very characteristic of the area. The wines from Guccione – I still know only two of them — are captivating. Have a look at Guccione’s webpage if your like: https://www.francescoguccione.com

Since I’ve mentioned Sabadi Bar in Modica: if any of you end up in Southern Sicily, please do go there. It is really such a beautiful place, and so peaceful: the bar is like a bar in a natural rocket ship surrounded by a garden of olive trees looking out over the old town of Modica. The food is excellent (a kind of Sicilian tapas), and you’ll find a smaller wine menu — but with an excellent selection of exclusively organic wines from across Italy and France.  Look here: https://modica.sabadi.it/il-bar