Now a Sicilia DOC wine, the Tenuta Rapitalà 2018 Sicilia Hugonis is a blend of equal parts Cabernet Sauvignon and Nero d'Avola. The wine shows lovely intensity and the robust fruit weight that you should expect of a red wine from the deep south of Italy. The bouquet peels back to pleasant layers of blackberry and prune. Those fruit tones are followed by mild tones of spice, scorched earth and black olive. This release of 6,300 bottles is ready to drink with a thick steak straight off the grill.

Congratulations to Laurent Bernard de le Gatinais who was elected President of Assovini Sicilia in July 2020. With 91 member wineries, this is the island's most important growers' association. I wish him great luck in bringing Sicilian wine out from this dreadful shadow of COVID-19. Tenuta Rapitalà farms 200 hectares (with 160 hectares of vines) and has followed organic protocols for the past six years.

A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Nero d'Avola, this has aromas of black-skinned berries, toasted oak and Mediterranean scrub. The savory, full-bodied palate offers black currant jam, licorice and mocha alongside fine-grained tannins. Drink through 2028.