Perricone: Sicily's Rustic, Savory Underdog Red

Perricone is pronounced peh-ree-KOH-neh.

Sicily almost lost this grape, and most drinkers never noticed it was gone.

Perricone is a dark, tannic, savory red from the western end of the island. If you like a bold Zinfandel but you're tired of the jam and the heat, this is the bottle to know. It gives you the same weight of black fruit with a drier, more herbal edge and a grip that keeps the finish honest. It rewards food and patience more than a first easy sip.

What it tastes like

Blackberry compote and ripe black plum sit up front, but the fruit never turns sweet on you. Underneath runs a savory current: bay leaf, dried Mediterranean herb, a little cinnamon spice. The structure is the headline. Perricone carries firm, sometimes assertive tannins that pull the finish long and dry, so it drinks bigger than its fruit alone would suggest.

Think medium-full body, fresh acidity that keeps it from feeling heavy, and no residual sweetness. Next to a warm-climate Zinfandel, Perricone reads leaner and more serious. It wants roast lamb, grilled sausage, hard cheese, something with fat and salt to meet the tannin halfway.

Where it comes from, and why almost nobody drinks it

Perricone grows in western Sicily, around Trapani and Palermo, and shows up under the old synonym Pignatello. Sicilian records note it by the eighteenth century, and for a long stretch its job was to add color and grip to Marsala rather than to stand on its own.

Two things nearly finished it. Phylloxera tore through Sicily's vineyards in the late 1800s and hit Perricone hard. Then, as demand for red Marsala faded, growers pulled a slow-ripening, temperamental grape and replanted the easier, more marketable Nero d'Avola. Plantings collapsed. What survives today is a small holdout, kept alive by producers who decided the savory, structured character was worth the trouble.

Bottles to look for

A few Sicilian houses carry the flag. Firriato recommitted to the grape back in the 1980s; Feudo Montoni bottles a well-regarded varietal Perricone; and Tasca d'Almerita, Assuli, and Cantine Barbera all work with it. Look for varietal bottlings labeled Perricone or Pignatello, and for the DOC names of the western island (Contea di Sclafani, Monreale, Delia Nivolelli) where the grape is written into the rules.

Here is the honest caveat. Perricone ripens slowly, and in the wrong vineyard or cellar those tannins stay green and the wine turns hard and astringent. This is a grape where the producer matters more than the grape name on the label. There's no consensus critic score to lean on, and the field is thin, so buy from a named, careful maker rather than the cheapest bottle you can find. Done right, it's distinctive. Done carelessly, it's a chore. That gap is exactly why it stayed an underdog, and why the good ones are worth hunting down.

Where to buy

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Perricone is genuinely rare in the US, so treat any bottle you find as a small score rather than an everyday buy. Start with a search and, if your local shop comes up empty, ask a specialist Italian importer to point you toward a current-vintage varietal bottling.

browse Perricone on Wine.com →

— Chris Berry

If you're switching from a famous grape

Reach for Perricone when you'd normally grab a Zinfandel and want the boldness without the sugar-jam finish. You keep the dark fruit and the Mediterranean warmth; you gain savor, tannin, and a drier, more food-friendly frame. It asks a little more of you and gives back something Zinfandel rarely does: restraint. See Wines Like Zinfandel and Order This Instead.

Part of Lesser-Known Wines: 17 Obscure Grapes Worth Switching To — the full underdog-swap guide.