2018 Aldo Viola “Saignée” Terre Siciliane Rosso

The vines for Aldo’s red wines grow 30 kilometers from his home village of Alcamo, in a dry, hot microclimate not dissimilar to that of northern Africa, and buffeted by the same scorching sirocco winds. “Saignee” blends roughly equal parts Nerello Mascalese, Perricone, and Syrah—which thrives in this zone’s parched heat as it does in Morocco’s. Aldo ferments it in steel with a six-or-seven-day maceration, then ages it for a year in large Slavonian oak casks, bottling it with a miniscule dose of sulfur. Saignee is ripe but controlled, with tenderly rendered bright red fruits complicated by a fascinating umami note not unlike that of high-quality tomato paste. Appropriately southerly in its sun-drenched persona, this wine nonetheless errs on the side of the sprightly and highly drinkable