Cantine Ermes have created a great Nero D'Avola for Good Pair Days, with plenty of Sicilian flair. With a deep colour, cherry cola and plenty of spice, this Nero hits the spot. The palate opens up with more cherry notes, plums and trademark spice and tannin structure.

The story of Cantine Ermes and its label, Casaponte, begins not with a wealthy family or a grand estate, but with an earthquake. On a January night in 1968, a devastating earthquake tore through the Belìce Valley in western Sicily, destroying entire towns and displacing thousands of people. Thirty years later, a group of determined local grape growers decided to rebuild something meaningful from that same wounded land, founding Cantine Ermes in 1998 with a shared dream of creating a world-class cooperative winery. It is one of the great comeback stories in Italian wine, and today the cooperative has grown to over 2,500 members. The wines are rooted firmly in Sicily's remarkable cast of indigenous varieties like Nero d'Avola, Grillo, Catarratto and Nerello Mascalese, grapes that have thrived for centuries under the island's fierce Mediterranean sun. Aside from these Sicilian varieties, what attracted the Good Pair Days team to Cantine Ermes was the ability to source varieties from across Italy, whether classic Sangiovese and Pinot Grigio or lesser-known varieties like Pecorino and Susumaniello.