WINE OF THE WEEK: Santa Tresa Cerasuolo di Vittoria 2022, Sicily, Italy

£12.95–£15.90, The Wine Society, Ocado, Vintage Roots

I’m probably playing a bit fast and loose with language here, but if a red wine, or any wine come to that, can be charismatic, Santa Tresa Cerasuolo di Vittoria 2022 is exhibit A.

It's irresistibly welcoming and approachable, but characterful and distinctive, too – dry and mouth-filling with rich fruit (fresh and dried cherries), nutmeg, cinnamon and a twist of bitter herb and soft tannins streaked with Seville-orange tanginess. I hope I’m conveying just how delicious it is.

Cerasuolo di Vittoria is Sicily's only DOCG (Italian wine's top classification) and comes from an area in the southeast of the island. It has among the lowest permitted yields of any DOCG, lower than Barolo, for example.

It's always a blend of two indigenous varieties, the darker, more brooding Nero d’Avola and the lighter, fruitier Frappato, and the proportion of the latter must never exceed the former. The estate-produced Santa Tresa Cerasuolo di Vittoria is a 60:40 blend.

The two grape varieties are harvested and vinified separately: 15 per cent of Santa Tresa's Nero d’Avola grapes are lightly dried on the vines (appassimento) and are then fermented in large Slavonian oak casks, while the Frappato, picked later, is fermented at cooler temperatures in stainless steel.

Once fermentation is complete, the wines are blended and aged for around a year, mostly in large oak casks but about 15 per cent in French barriques.

The whole estate, which is owned and run by the Girelli family and includes olive, orange, lemon and almond trees, is certified organic, is fully sustainable and worked holistically, which makes it all the more surprising that they’re still using unnecessarily heavy bottles.

Along with everything else going for it, Cerasuolo di Vittoria, and especially Santa Tresa’s, is very food-friendly. You can drink it with fish such as tuna steaks, duck (spiced and drizzled with balsamic glaze, for example), quail, pork belly, salumi, spiced, roast vegetables (roots, squash and Mediterranean veg) and, not least, Sicily's agrodolce vegetable dish caponata. 14%. Empty bottle weight: 747g.

Santa Tresa Cerasuolo di Vittoria 2022, Sicily, Italy

£12.95, The Wine Society; £15.50, Ocado; £15.90, Vintage Roots

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