Il Censo, “Njuro”
Sicily, Italy 2015 (750mL)
Regular price$40.00
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Il Censo, “Njuro”
When Gaetano Gargano took over his family's 200-year-old property, a remote farmstead clinging to a steep volcanic outcropping in Sicily, he wouldn’t have dreamed that he’d end up becoming a close friend and confidant of Sagrantino legend/global superstar Giampiero Bea (whose hand-scripted labels decorate the cellar of every collector). At the time, Gargano was sitting on a sprawling property peppered with century-old olive trees and tracts of rugged hillside land that once held bountiful crops of grain and legumes. Only one small, hand-planted vineyard had survived decades of neglect, and Gargano was determined to revive it.
Turns out, Bea was interested, too, so they began working in tandem to produce fascinating, natural wines in small batches. The rest is history. One taste of the pure, youthful exuberance swirling around today’s 2015 “Il Censo”—crafted from Sicily’s native Perricone grape—qualifies it as one the year’s most exciting and rare treasures. It’s vivid, juicy, savage, alive, and bordering on supernatural—all for fractions less than Bea’s wines from Umbria. It's no wonder what little trickles into America never survives the first wave of buyers!
Turns out, Bea was interested, too, so they began working in tandem to produce fascinating, natural wines in small batches. The rest is history. One taste of the pure, youthful exuberance swirling around today’s 2015 “Il Censo”—crafted from Sicily’s native Perricone grape—qualifies it as one the year’s most exciting and rare treasures. It’s vivid, juicy, savage, alive, and bordering on supernatural—all for fractions less than Bea’s wines from Umbria. It's no wonder what little trickles into America never survives the first wave of buyers!
[NOTE: This wine is only available as a pre-offer and will be arriving at our warehouse in two weeks.]
“Il Censo” is a product of a quarter-century-old friendship and deeply gifted talent in the vineyard and cellar coming together at an ancient Sicilian family property. Gaetano Gargano met Giampiero Bea in the early 1990s and the two struck up an immediate friendship founded on a similar sense of humor and their mutual ability to enlighten and help one another. Gaetano was an experienced financial professional and helped the Bea family make informed decisions while Giampiero fed Gaetano’s insatiable curiosity and passion for wine. This bond continually deepened over the years, and in the late 2000s, the two came upon an ideal opportunity to combine their skills and interests.
“Il Censo” is a product of a quarter-century-old friendship and deeply gifted talent in the vineyard and cellar coming together at an ancient Sicilian family property. Gaetano Gargano met Giampiero Bea in the early 1990s and the two struck up an immediate friendship founded on a similar sense of humor and their mutual ability to enlighten and help one another. Gaetano was an experienced financial professional and helped the Bea family make informed decisions while Giampiero fed Gaetano’s insatiable curiosity and passion for wine. This bond continually deepened over the years, and in the late 2000s, the two came upon an ideal opportunity to combine their skills and interests.
Gaetano and his wife’s family were rehabilitating a centuries-old inherited estate in the village of Palazzo Adriano. Roughly 40 miles south of Palermo, Sicily, this ancient township sits perched 2,000 feet high in the hills. Palazzo Adriano is a rural and extraordinarily picturesque village. The region feels somehow forgotten by modernity and resembles the idealized Sicily as depicted in films. This is not a coincidence—Palazzo Adriano is located just south of Corleone and is the setting of the Oscar-winning film, “Cinema Paradiso.” It is no wonder that Gaetano dreamed of reintroducing viticulture to this magical property and that after one visit, Giampiero needed no further persuasion to join the endeavor.
The two men selected a 2,100-foot-high hillside as the ideal location for their vineyard and, with Giampiero’s experience and supervision, Gaetano planted 2.5 hectares of the white grape Catarratto and 2.5 hectares of the variety that makes up today’s wine, Perricone. Also known as Pignatello (and locally as “Njuro Cane,” the “black dog”), Perricone is a thick-skinned red variety that is planted across western Sicily. Like the Sagrantino of Giampiero’s estate in Montefalco, Umbria, Perricone produces wines with dark and concentrated color, robust tannins, and no shortage of raw power. After manual harvest in October, the juice naturally ferments without temperature control and the wine ages in stainless steel for two years. It is bottled without fining or filtration.
The three times I’ve tasted this beautifully fierce wine, I’ve learned the lush core of dark fruit drives subtler notes of grilled Mediterranean herbs, cured meats, and exotic florals that dramatically evolve during the first hour of consumption. This 2015 is unapologetically alive, zipping with laser-precise energy and youthful buoyancy that can be tamed with a brief 15-30-minute decant. I, however, was unafraid to dive in a few moments after the cork was pulled and was pleasantly greeted with an uncontrolled roar of multi-colored cherries, black raspberry, plum pie, blueberry, and intense flow of meaty savory, pepper, and smoky notes that have become the hallmark of this gorgeously wild wine. If you love natural wine that zaps you with intoxicating flavor and an enlivening prickle, drink within the first hour. If you want to steer away from the wild side, allow it to open up over 1-2 hours and you’ll find that there incredible pedigree and class to be had. As for me, I love both versions!
