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Gulfi
Cerasuolo di Vittoria
2024
3.9
Region
Italy › Sicily › Vittoria › Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG
Type
red · still
Grapes
Frappato, Nero d'Avola
Alcohol
13.5%
Volume
750 mL
Tasting Notes(1)
3.9
Give it some air. On first pour the wine reads dense and closed: olives, red fruit, spice, wet wood, with a perfumed edge. Twenty minutes later it's a different bottle - the Frappato side lifts through, cherry brightens, the florals come forward, the weight pulls back. Exactly why Cerasuolo di Vittoria leans on that grape. Properly wants a decanter.
About
Cerasuolo di Vittoria 2024 is Gulfi's entry to Sicily's only DOCG - the appellation that was upgraded from DOC in 2005 and remains the island's lone Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita. The DOCG covers parts of Ragusa, Catania, and Caltanissetta provinces; the disciplinare calls for 50-70% Nero d'Avola and 30-50% Frappato.
Despite the appellation's name, the fruit doesn't actually come from Vittoria proper. Per Gulfi's own technical sheet, the standard DOCG bottling is sourced from three plots - Vigna Catania, Vigna Patria, and Vigna Coste - in Chiaramonte Gulfi in the Iblei hills (Ragusa province) at around 450 metres. Limestone-clay soils, alberello-trained bush vines, dry-farmed, certified organic (the IT-BIO-004 mark on the bottle is Suolo e Salute, the certifying body).
Vinification is stainless steel only: Nero d'Avola and Frappato fermented separately with native yeasts after a short skin maceration, blended at the end of alcoholic fermentation, then aged about 7 months on lees in steel before bottling. No oak. The producer's tech sheet gives the blend as 70% Nero d'Avola / 30% Frappato, while the Ukrainian importer's back label on this bottle states 50/50 - the reason for the discrepancy isn't clear, but both proportions sit comfortably inside the disciplinare's allowed range, and the producer-published number is the one to trust.
Gulfi also makes a separate Cerasuolo di Vittoria Classico from Vigna Stidda - same village, same blend rules, but trained on a hybrid alberello-on-trellis system and aged about a year in 500L and 225L barrels. That one is the more structured, oak-shaped reading. The standard DOCG (this bottle) is the freshness-and-Frappato side - juicy red cherry, light-footed, less serious-looking but more drinkable on a weeknight.
