Your cellar, your trips, and the wines you've been tracking are right where you left them.
New here?
Free, always. Education first, we'll never sell you anything you didn't ask to see.
Already have an account?
Enter the email you signed up with and we'll send a link to choose a new password.
Fabrizio Vella
Sicilian winemaker Fabrizio Vella blends fresh Nero d'Avola with a lightly dried passito parcel: a Terre Siciliane IGT red of bramble, black cherry and a raisin-and-liquorice richness. Full-bodied and soft at 13.6%, and rated 4.3 on Vivino.
The character comes from the blend: a pure, fresh Nero d'Avola parcel lifted by a smaller lightly dried one. Virgin Wines describes bramble fruit with liquorice, raisin and sweet spice; Vivino's 346-review profile leads on blackberry and plum, then cherry, with an oak and chocolate edge. The result is soft and full-bodied, a ripe everyday red rather than a dessert wine.
Blackberry and plum lead, the descriptors Vivino tasters flag most across 346 reviews, with fresher cherry behind. Fabrizio Vella's lightly dried passito parcel surfaces as raisin and a touch of liquorice. A secondary oak and chocolate note rounds out the top.
Black cherry
Blackberry
Plum
Prune
Raisin
Black pepper
Liquorice
ChocolateFull-bodied and soft, with the low-acid, gently sweet edge the appassimento fruit gives. Dried-fruit richness sits over ripe black fruit rather than tannic grip, and Vivino places it well toward the smooth, soft end of its structure scales. At 13.6% it stays easy rather than heavy.
Medium length, closing on raisin, sweet spice and a little liquorice. More than one drinker notes it reads even better on the second day.
A ripe, soft, dried-fruit-inflected Sicilian Nero d'Avola that drinks like an easygoing everyday red, rated 4.3 on Vivino across more than 1,800 ratings.
Depasso is a Virgin Wines exclusive, so no rival UK retailer undercuts it. At £15.99 for the 2024 it sits a few pounds above the roughly £11 Vivino flags as the going rate for a 4.3-rated southern-Italian red, a premium that pays for the extra passito-parcel work rather than a grander appellation. A magnum is listed for larger tables.
Scored across six uses, this reads as an easy everyday red first: soft tannins, ripe dried-fruit flavour and a 4.3 Vivino average make it simple to pour, while the £15.99 exclusive price and drink-now window keep it off any cellar shortlist. It rewards the beginner curious about Sicilian Nero d'Avola more than the collector.
Ripe, soft and gently sweet with no tannic grip, it is an approachable first step into Sicilian Nero d'Avola for newer drinkers.
An easy, low-acid red at a mid-teens price that suits midweek roasts and relaxed pours.
Soft tannins and ripe dried-fruit flavour make it a flexible partner for roast meats, ragu and hard cheese, though the low acidity limits it with fresh, acidic dishes.
At £15.99 it runs a few pounds above Vivino's roughly £11 benchmark for a 4.3-rated southern-Italian red, fair for a passito-blend Virgin Wines exclusive rather than a bargain.
Scoring is rule-based and deterministic. The model and weightings are documented in our Wine Fit Score methodology.
A compact view of what the Terre Siciliane denomination actually requires, and how this bottle sits inside it. Pulled from the official Italian disciplinare.
Compare tracked offers from verified retailers at a glance. Stock is shown only where the retailer exposes it. Logos, sale pricing, and the strongest offer are surfaced first.
The current bottle is the 2024, 13.6% and drinking well now to the end of 2029 on Virgin Wines' guidance. On Vivino the wine is steady year to year in the low-to-mid 4.3 range, the 2019 its best-scored at 4.4 and the 2020 flagged among the top 1% of all wines rated. It is made to drink young for its fruit rather than to reward the cellar.
The 2024 is the current Virgin Wines release at 13.6%, drinking well now to the end of 2029. Across vintages Depasso holds a steady low-to-mid 4.3 on Vivino, so expect the house style: ripe black fruit softened by the lightly dried passito parcel.
The 2024 is the current Virgin Wines release at 13.6%, drinking well now to the end of 2029. Across vintages Depasso holds a steady low-to-mid 4.3 on Vivino, so expect the house style: ripe black fruit softened by the lightly dried passito parcel.
Drink-now / hold guidance reflects general style cues for this wine, not a forecast for a specific bottle. Where vintage-level editorial notes exist, they appear above.
Depasso is bottled as Terre Siciliane IGT, the island-wide indication covering all of Sicily, which leaves producers free on grape, yield and technique. That latitude is the point: partly drying Nero d'Avola for a leggermente appassito style is a route producers typically take under IGT rather than the tighter Sicilia DOC. The grape is Sicily's flagship black variety, Nero d'Avola.
Italian wine law sorts bottles into a pyramid. DOCG sits at the top: tightly drawn boundaries, prescribed grapes, mandatory ageing, government tasting before release. DOC is the same idea with looser thresholds. IGT (Indicazione Geografica Tipica) is broader still, requiring only that 85% of the grapes come from the named territory.
Terre Siciliane is in the IGT tier. That is not a quality verdict, it is a description of how much freedom the producer has at vinification and ageing.
Terre Siciliane falls within Sicily , covering Sicily.
Fabrizio Vella part-dries a share of the Nero d'Avola for the leggermente appassito parcel, then blends it with a fresh parcel: two vinifications plus drying losses that a single dry cuvee avoids.
Sold only through Virgin Wines, so the £15.99 is not undercut by rival UK sellers the way a widely distributed Nero d'Avola would be.
UK excise duty is about £2.67 on a 13.6% 75cl bottle, with 20% VAT on top, together a fixed slice of the £15.99 shelf price.
Island-wide IGT fruit carries none of the scarcity premium of a cru or DOCG, holding the price in the mid-teens rather than higher.
The variety is widely grown across the island, so base fruit is affordable versus a rare or low-yield grape.
The producer points to roast white meat with a sharp fruit sauce, turkey and cranberry above all, where the wine's dried-fruit sweetness meets the tart sauce. Its soft, low-acid, full-bodied build also carries grilled beef and slow lamb, the meats Vivino drinkers reach for. The one style to sidestep is a bright, high-acid tomato dish.
The producer's own match. The wine's raisin and dried-fruit sweetness meets the tart cranberry, while its soft tannins keep the pairing gentle on lean white meat.
Try with: Roast turkey with cranberry · Glazed Christmas ham · Duck with cherry
A full-bodied Nero d'Avola with ripe black fruit stands up to char-grilled beef, the dish Vivino drinkers pair with it most. The soft tannins suit the meat without drying it out.
Try with: Fiorentina steak · Grilled ribeye · Brasato al Barolo · More pairings →
Raisin, liquorice and sweet spice in the wine echo the slow-cooked depth of a lamb ragu, and both lamb and pasta sit on Vivino's pairing list. Low acidity keeps it comfortable with a rich, meaty sauce.
Try with: Agnello ragu lucano · Pappardelle al ragu · Slow-braised lamb · More pairings →
The wine's ripe, faintly sweet dried fruit offsets the salt and crystalline bite of a well-aged pecorino, the grilled-meat-and-aged-cheese match Italian tasting sheets note for this style.
Try with: Pecorino sardo with pane carasau · Aged Parmigiano · Provolone piccante · More pairings →
Fennel and herb in porchetta bridge to the wine's sweet-spice and liquorice notes, and the fatty pork is softened by its ripe, low-tannin fruit.
Try with: Porchetta · Herb-roasted pork loin · Sausage with lentils · More pairings →
Its gentle sweetness and low acidity amplify chilli heat instead of cooling it, and the soft, tannin-light structure has no bite to reset the palate. Keep it for savoury, lightly sweet dishes.
Skip with: Arrabbiata with extra chilli · Spicy vindaloo · Nduja-heavy dishes · Pairing guide →
Peak around 2026. Best in the years above; holds without falling over either side.
A short splash decant softens the first-pour edge and opens the aromatics.
Built to drink young for its fruit and listed as best by the end of 2029, it has neither the structure nor the track record for cellaring.
£15.99 is the lowest tracked offer for the current vintage and we have no signal of further discounting.
Read directly from each retailer’s public product page once a day. Last refresh: 28 Jul 2026, 17:10 BST. We do not hold stock and we do not accept payment for placement.
Confidence · HighDrawn from what drinkers consistently report on Vivino and Wine-Searcher, summarised in our own words. A crowd read across many tasters, not a single critic.
Confidence · MediumFrom the official Italian disciplinare for this denomination, cross-checked against the Ministry of Agriculture register.
Confidence · HighOur reading of the price, drawn from the disciplinare, public UK duty rates, and typical landed-cost benchmarks. Not a quote from the producer or a retailer.
Confidence · MediumStyle guidance for this kind of wine at this price point. Treat it as advice, not a forecast for the bottle in your hand.
Confidence · MediumIt is a dry red with a ripe, gently sweet edge, not a dessert wine. Winemaker Fabrizio Vella blends fresh Nero d'Avola with a smaller passito (dried-grape) parcel, which adds raisin and dried-fruit richness without heavy sugar. Some Vivino drinkers still read it as sweetish because the fruit is so ripe and the acidity low.
Leggermente appassito means 'lightly dried'. A share of the Nero d'Avola grapes are partly dried before pressing, concentrating their sugar and flavour, which is why the wine shows dried-fruit, raisin and liquorice layers over its fresh bramble fruit. The style sits under the island-wide Terre Siciliane IGT.
Roast white meat with a sharp fruit sauce, turkey with cranberry above all, is the producer's own suggestion. The soft tannins and dried-fruit sweetness also suit Fiorentina steak, lamb ragu and aged pecorino. Steer clear of bright, high-acid tomato dishes, which expose its low acidity.
The 2024 is 13.6% alcohol. Virgin Wines lists it as drinking well now through the end of 2029. Enjoy it young for its ripe fruit; this is not a wine built for long cellaring.
It is made in Sicily by Fabrizio Vella, a Palermo-trained oenologist, exclusively for Virgin Wines. The grapes are Nero d'Avola from coastal Sicilian vineyards, bottled under the island-wide Terre Siciliane IGT rather than a tighter DOC.
It holds 4.3 out of 5 on Vivino from more than 1,800 ratings, with the 2019 vintage its highest scorer at 4.4. Tasters most often note blackberry and plum, then cherry, alongside an oak, chocolate and dried-fruit character.
4 retailers
Terre Siciliane
4 retailers
£13.15
£16.36
3 retailers
Terre Siciliane
3 retailers
£14.07
3 retailers
Terre Siciliane
3 retailers
£21.50
£24.71
3 retailers
Terre Siciliane
3 retailers
£14.24
Affiliate disclosure. Some links above are affiliate links. If you buy through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Editorial coverage, ratings and tasting notes are written independently and a retailer cannot pay to be listed or to be ranked higher.
How retailer prices are sourced.
Prices and stock are read from each retailer’s public product page once a day. Outbound buy links carry rel="nofollow sponsored noopener". The list is sorted by price; we do not accept payment for placement.
What we will never do. Imply we tasted a bottle when we didn’t. Imply stock when a retailer is out. Imply independence on links that are paid affiliate links.
Verified retailers
Price comparison
Updated daily
