An informal wine tasting in the HK Golfer offices recently began with a 2007 Sicilian red from the Feudo Maccari winery called Saia. It is made entirely from the Nero d’Avola grape, which has been grown highly successfully on the island to which it is indigenous, and has a peppery quality which has prompted comparisons to some New World Shiraz wines.
It is a food wine, still too tannic to be entirely enjoyable on its own, although it may mellow agreeably with a little more bottle age. Cherry flavours are pronounced.
Feudo Maccari is owned by Antonio Moretti, a successful businessman in the garment and leather goods trade who originally got into the wine business because he happened to own an estate in the Chianti area of Tuscany which supplied grapes to local wine makers.
Moretti asked one of them, Piero Antinori, whether Tenuta Sette Ponti – the name means Seven Bridges referring to the crossings of the River Arno – had the potential to produce great wines. Having been assured it was possible he began to invest in wine making expertise and equipment to maximise the potential of his land.
Like his garment and leather goods businesses, Moretti’s diversification into wine has been a success. Sette Ponti’s wines are now available in Hong Kong through Watson’s Wine Cellar along with the Saia red, and we also tried two of his very respectable although more expensive Tuscans.
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