Few families are as woven into the story of Italian wine as the Mazzei. Their winemaking history stretches back to 1435, and for some twenty-five generations they have been custodians of Castello di Fonterutoli, one of the most celebrated estates in Chianti Classico. Yet for all their Tuscan roots, the family has never stopped exploring. At the turn of the millennium they began a five-year search for a new frontier, a place where they could bring the same passion and precision to one of southern Italy’s great native grapes. In 2003 they found it, in the far south-east of Sicily.
Zisola lies just outside Noto, the golden baroque town that is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the heartland of Nero d’Avola, the land where the grape is believed to have originated. The 50-hectare estate is a true Sicilian garden, with vines growing alongside citrus groves, olive trees and almond orchards around three historic stone farmhouses, or bagli, one of which looks out over Noto itself. The Mazzei saw in this place a rare combination of history, beauty and untapped potential, and set out to show what Nero d’Avola could achieve when treated with the respect usually reserved for the world’s great grapes.
Today some 24 hectares are planted, every vine trained in the traditional Sicilian alberello, a free-standing bush vine, at a density of 5,500 vines per hectare. It is painstaking work, with more than 400 hours of handwork per hectare each year. The soils are rich in limestone and stony gravel, and while the summers are hot and dry, breezes from the nearby Ionian Sea bring a welcome freshness. Together, this combination tames Nero d’Avola’s natural exuberance and gives wines of unusual freshness, refinement and elegance.
The Zisola Noto Rosso is the estate’s signature wine and the purest expression of this philosophy. Made entirely from Nero d’Avola grown on the estate’s bush vines, the grapes are hand-harvested and gently vinified with around two weeks of maceration, before maturing in French oak barriques, a portion of them new. The result is what the family calls “the new Nero d’Avola style”: generous and sun-kissed yet beautifully balanced, with ripe wild berries, black cherry and a flash of orange zest, notes of Mediterranean herbs and cedar, and supple tannins leading to a long, gently savoury finish. Delicious with grilled meats, rich pasta dishes and aged pecorino, it is a captivating taste of Sicily through the eyes of one of Tuscany’s great families.
