Best Buys $10 And Under

Sicily, Italy- This is the most widely planted of Sicily's indigenous reds and Cusumano's is grown near the heart of the island. A fruit driven offering with a great bouquet of cherry and rose petal leading to light spice, strawberry and a creamy finish. Delicious and a super value.

91 points Wine Advocate
A terrific value proposition, the organic Valle dell'Acate 2022 Sicilia Vittoria Il Frappato shows a light appearance with shiny ruby colors. This wine is fragrant and punchy with lots of vibrant cherry fruit, wild berry and sour cassis. Hints of caper or green olive also appear. You get energy and tension in this easy-drinking red. Valle dell'Acate makes a really fun bottle of Frappato that hits all the right marks.

Harvested late - in early October when the grapes are especially ripe. Grapes are dried for 15 days - until they lose about 50% of their weight - before pressing. Fermented in stainless steel. Aged in a mix of stainless steel and new and used oak.

Organic

I Custodi’s cellar master is long-time Etna guru Salvo Foti, and his touch is one of a bianchista (white wine lover) prizing elegance, tension, and keeping the pristine volcanic spice found in these wines. Mario and Salvo have decided to release both red and whites only after extended elevage; it’s another sign of the dedication of this winery to natural and fine wines, a shared mantra also of PortoVino.
Pistus is primarily the younger vines that don’t make it into the Aetneus bottling. Fresh and pure, volcanic spicy, good with a slight chill, and also good not with a slight chill!


80% Nerello Mascalese and 20% Nerello Cappuccio

Organic / Natural

Golden-amber-colored, an exotic bouquet of sugar-dusted ginger, dried nectarines, crushed green apple, geranium and mint. This is powerful and deeply textural, with a pretty inner sweetness balanced by brisk acids and tart orchard fruits, complemented by savory brown spice and a mind-bending addition of cocoa toward the close. For all of its density, the Praruar turns squeaky-clean through the finale, yet still full of lively energy, resonating on floral-tinged peaches and pears.

Produced exclusively from Catarratto grapes grown on the Il Censo estate outside of Palazzo Adriano; vineyards are farmed organically and grapes are harvested manually, with harvest occurring usually in October; the grapes maintain contact with the skins for two to three weeks, the length of the maceration depending on the vintage; only indigenous yeasts are used during fermentation and no temperature controls are utilized; the wines is bottled without being fined or filtered.