Art and Wine: An Intriguing Liaison for Mandrarossa’s New “Season”
It was needed. Not a restaurant, not a hotel, but an art gallery. Or rather a “concept place” — I must admit I wouldn’t quite know how to define it, given how much I liked it — like the Contemporary Cluster at Palazzo Brancaccio, chosen to help us wine-addicted understand what has been happening at Mandrarossa during the pandemic.
Where to begin, if not with the visual approach that the location itself imposes…
New labels, a rebranding focused on essentials, and a visual language that welcomes guests with large panels distributed throughout the main hall. Wine bottles scattered across the bookshelves of the Contemporary Cluster, with Nero d’Avola and Grillo placed among shelves full of design magazines.
And then a new corporate video — a medium that the winery has always paid great attention to — this time focused more on family than on territory.
“The Sicily you don’t expect” is the payoff that dominates this Roman afternoon. But after seeing what happens during their Wineyard Tours, I’ve come to expect this and more from Mandrarossa. The association with art, however, was something I truly did not anticipate.
To be honest, I also didn’t expect the presentation of the new Larcéra Terre Siciliane IGT 2021, an organic Vermentino, during a masterclass where I had the chance to taste several wines. Among the whites: Fiano Terre Siciliane IGT 2021, Grillo Sicilia DOC 2021, Bertolino Soprano Bianco Sicilia DOC 2018, and Santannella Terre Siciliane IGT 2021 — all characterized by pronounced sapidity and freshness.
Alongside them, two expressions of Nero d’Avola (Nero d’Avola Sicilia DOC 2021 and Terre del Sommacco Rosso Sicilia DOC 2017), quite different from one another but both marked by soft tannins and remarkable drinkability.
A different kind of afternoon: with Sicilian tradition at heart, but also with a strong innovative instinct that this time found expression not only in the wine but also in art — and, as always, in that ability to balance communication, formality and hospitality in a way that inevitably makes you feel at home.
