Archeo Sicilia Nero D’Avola IGT

Grape: Nero D’Avola

Region: Sicily

Vintage: 2007

Price: $4.99

In the glass: Archeo is a deep crimson-red color with an opaque core going out into a fine slightly garnet-red rim definition with medium-high viscosity.

On the nose: The wine brims with jammy crushed red and black berry character and fruit soup. It has some phenolics and underlying herbal character, but they are playing second fiddle to all that delicious and fragrant juicy fruit.

On the palate: Archeo is a nice mouthful, with juicy black spicy fruit, peppercorns, tobacco, cherry juice, huckleberry sauce, ripe black plums, toast points and loads of chewy minerals. Although the tannins seem very forward through the midpalate, the wine is measured and balanced despite its slightly rustic appearance. The finish is excellent with yet more black pepper, crushed ripe brambleberries, and good structure and backbone. For a wine that is less than $5, this has staggering fruit.

Odds and ends: I found this wine at my local Trader Joe’s and decided to put it up against some other Italian wines from primarily Puglia and Sicily. It did exceedingly well in the tasting and was in the top three, but when the price was revealed it shot right up to the top. It even looks nicely packaged. Archeo is typical of a whole group of wines now being produced in the very south of Italy: ripe juicy fruit-laden wines with both body and structure at affordable prices. You’ll want something fairly substantial to eat with this, such as pasta with meat sauce. It should drink well through 2012.

Gil Lempert-Schwarz’s wine column appears Wednesdays. Write him at P.O. Box 50749, Henderson, NV 89016-0749, or e-mail him at gil@winevegas.com.