The 2020 Perricone Core wafts up with a woodland-inspired bouquet, mixing savory herbs with flowery underbrush, crushed wild berries and camphor. It opens with a pretty inner sweetness that gives way to violet-infused red and blue fruits accentuated by lavender. Saline minerals add a lovely grip toward the close. This finishes structured yet surprisingly fresh and perfumed, leaving a licorice tinge and exotic spice hints. This zesty Perricone will win many hearts. - By Eric Guido on June 2023

From 40-year-old vines in the cru that Feudo Montoni calls ‘Core’ Sicilian for heart, in a heart-shaped block in the vineyard grown at 500m. Aromas of tobacco, dusty cherries and bay leaf mark this wine of depth and complexity. The palate is spicy, a true signature of the grape, as this wine was done almost entirely in concrete vessels. A touch of briny minerality lends itself to sea salt and dark chocolate flavours—a tightly wound core of black fruits draped in minerality and showing ample structure and ageability.

Hints of firewood and camphor light up behind black cherries, vanilla, cedar and spices are on the nose of this Sicilian red from the Perricone grape, before fresher notes of tomatoes and herbs come out on the palate. An undercurrent of stony brininess and more berries come through at the back, with the tension held by mellowing tannins but vibrant acid. — Danielle Callegari