DOC White Brand label

Nero Oro Grillo Appassimento

A brand of The Wine People, not an estate

Grape
Grillo
Denomination
Sicilia DOC
Region
Sicily
ABV
13%

A rare dried-grape white: Marsala-area Grillo part-dried on the vine gives honeyed peach, dried apricot and candied grapefruit, just off-dry at 13%. From the merchant house The Wine People; Decanter gave the 2019 90 points. £12.50 at Majestic.

Price
£12.50

2025 · 75cl · checked 27 Oct · Delivery £7.95, free from £99

Prices read daily from 1 UK retailer. We earn a commission on some links; it never changes the order.

Where to buy Nero Oro Grillo Appassimento , Sicily

£12.50 price · 1 retailer in stock · checked 27 Oct 2026

One shop sells this wine in the UK, so there is no price to compare between shops. Each price is the one on its page today, read daily.

Majestic Best price 2025 · 75cl · checked 27 Oct · Delivery £7.95, free from £99
Read from the retailer's page once a day. Confidence is low, so treat it as a guide and confirm at the retailer.
£12.50 £16.67/L

Stock status is read from each retailer’s page once a day and may lag.

Tasting Notes

Tasting Nero Oro's dried-grape Grillo

The Wine People pick their Marsala-area Grillo in several passes, leaving part of the crop to shrivel on the vine, then rest the wine three to four months on fine lees. Expect honeyed tropical fruit with a pithy grapefruit edge: closer to a white take on the Amarone idea than to a classic crisp Grillo.

Tasted by
ItalianWines editorial
Tasted on
4 August 2026
Source
Drinker consensus · confidence Medium
Typical of Grillo
Body Light / Full
Tannins Smooth / Grippy
Sweetness Dry / Sweet
Acidity Soft / Crisp
Nose

Straw yellow with gold glints, it opens on the dried-grape signature of this Marsala-area Grillo. Pineapple and ripe peach shade into dried apricot, orange peel and a honeyed, nutty edge. Aromatic herbs run through it, as The Wine People's own note has it. The 2019 showed waxy orange zest, lemon and honey to Decanter's James Button.

GrapefruitGrapefruit
Orange peelOrange peel
ApricotApricot
PeachPeach
PineapplePineapple
RaisinRaisin
AlmondAlmond
HoneyHoney
Palate

Plusher than any standard Grillo. Candied citrus and honey arrive first, and the off-dry core, 8.3 grams of sugar a litre in the 2019, reads as ripeness against pithy grapefruit acidity. The grapes dry twice, on the vine and then around 15 days on mats, losing 10 to 15% of their weight. Add three to four months resting on the yeast and you get a waxy, mouth-filling texture at 13%.

Finish

Medium-long, narrowing to grapefruit pith and dried apricot with a subtle honey-and-nut fade; fresher than the honeyed attack suggests.

Overall

A popular curiosity rather than a purist's Grillo. A well-liked everyday white, valued for its price and its fit with spiced food, though some find the honeyed weight cloying. Drink it young, with sweet-spice on the table, in its first two to three years.

Drink now Best by 2027
Live UK pricing

Where to buy Nero Oro Grillo Appassimento

A Majestic exclusive in the UK at £12.50 a bottle, dropping to £11.00 in any mixed six. At that price it carries a 90-point Decanter note for the 2019 and a 3.9 Vivino average across more than 2,500 ratings.

Best price · 75 cl · 2025 £12.50 at Majestic
75cl · 2025 available from Majestic £12.50, in stock
Vintages live 2025 Current release: 2025
Per-litre (75cl · 2025 basis) £16.67 Lowest current 75cl · 2025 offer
Last checked 27 Oct 2026 Refreshed once every 24 hours
Wine fit score

How Nero Oro Grillo scores as an Italian wine pick

Scored on our six house dimensions: an easy, food-flexible off-dry white from Trento negociant The Wine People, strongest on value at £12.50 and weakest as a cellar candidate.

Best value 8.2/10

Judged against its UK shelf peers. £12.50, or £11.00 in a Majestic mixed six, buys a double-harvest dried-grape white whose 2019 took 90 Decanter points. A straight Sicilia DOC Grillo without the drying typically sits at £9 to £12.

Best with food 7.8/10

An off-dry aromatic white built for sweet-spiced food. The producer pours it with chicken curry and shellfish. Its 8 grams or so of sugar a litre, plus grapefruit acidity, handle korma to tagine better than most dry whites.

Best intro to this style 7.8/10

Screwcap, 13% and honeyed tropical fruit make it an easy first Sicilian white, and buyers rate it very highly. Its off-dry dried-grape style is not the textbook crisp Grillo, though.

Best everyday bottle 7.0/10

Under £13 and sealed with a screwcap, it runs from shellfish to korma. The honeyed off-dry weight makes it a bottle for spiced dinners more than a neutral every-night pour.

Best for an occasion 3.2/10

An entry-level Sicilia DOC talking point rather than a prestige bottle: it opens a conversation about white Amarone-style winemaking but carries no cellar or icon status.

Best for cellar 2.5/10

Built for immediate drinking: raised in tank with three to four months on its yeast, and no oak. Decanter's window for the 2019 was just two years.

Scoring is rule-based and deterministic. The model and weightings are documented in our Wine Fit Score methodology.

Denomination Compliance Snapshot

Sicilia in five fields

A compact view of what the Sicilia denomination actually requires, and how this bottle sits inside it. Pulled from the official Italian disciplinare.

Allowed grapes
11 varieties listed
This bottle: Grillo.
Minimum ageing
Recorded by producer
Disciplinare ageing rule not yet recorded.
Region / area
Sicily: the whole island, from the Trapani coast in the west to the slopes of Etna in the east
Source: Disciplinare.
Style
DOC · Sicilia
Classification
DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata)
Vintages

The 2024 vintage in Sicily

2024 was a drought-marked Sicilian season: yields fell around 20%, yet Assovini's harvest report judged quality intact, with north-west Grillo, the Marsala zone this wine comes from, ripening notably riper than average.

2025 Current release
Best price
£12.50
Retailers
1 in stock
2024 Sold through
Best price
not listed
Retailers
0 in stock
ABV
13.0%
Window
Drink now through 2027

A drought-marked Sicilian season: the 2024 crop fell about 20% but Assovini's harvest report judged quality intact, and north-west Grillo, the Marsala zone this bottle draws from, ripened riper than average. Drink it young, by about 2027, while the tropical fruit is freshest.

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.

The disciplinare, the place, the label

Sicilia DOC and the appassimento method

Since the 2017 reservation rule, varietally labelled Grillo can only be bottled as Sicilia DOC, which is why this dried-grape white carries DOC papers rather than a Terre Siciliane IGT label.

01

DOC, DOCG, IGT: what the badges mean

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.

Sicilia is in the DOC tier. That is not a quality verdict, it is a description of how much freedom the producer has at vinification and ageing.

02

The denomination rules, in detail

  • Allowed grapes. 11 varieties listed in the disciplinare
  • Yield ceiling. 13.0 tonnes per hectare
  • Tasting panel. No mandatory pre-release tasting
03

Region and area context

Sicilia falls within Sicily, covering Sicily: the whole island, from the Trapani coast in the west to the slopes of Etna in the east.

Sicilia DOC zone Wine routes in the zone

Wine routes in the zone: Strada del Vino dell'Etna, Strada del Vino Cerasuolo di Vittoria, Strada del Vino Marsala e Pantelleria.

04

Reading the label

  • GrilloGrape varieties
  • Sicilia DOCGeographic indication and quality tier
  • 2025Vintage (year of harvest)
05

What sits behind the price of Nero Oro Grillo Appassimento , Sicily

Tracked from
£12.50
Direction
Mostly cost up
Drivers
4 up / 2 down
Main factor
Multi-pass hand harvest with on-vine drying in the Marsala area
  1. 01

    Multi-pass hand harvest with on-vine drying in the Marsala area

    Cost up

    The Wine People pick the Grillo by hand in several passes, leaving part of the crop on the vine until it sheds weight: repeated vineyard passes cost more than one machine sweep.

  2. 02

    10 to 15% juice loss from dried grapes

    Cost up

    Bunches twisted on the vine plus around 15 days on drying mats lose 10 to 15% of their weight (Joanna Simon's technical detail), so each bottle needs more grapes than a standard Grillo.

  3. 03

    Three to four months on fine lees

    Cost up

    The producer rests the wine on its fine lees for three to four months before bottling: modest cellar time that buys the waxy texture without expensive oak.

  4. 04

    Negociant model on bought-in fruit

    Cost down

    The Wine People is a Trento negociant buying Marsala-area fruit rather than farming an estate, which keeps vineyard ownership and estate overheads out of the £12.50 price.

  5. 05

    Majestic-exclusive volume retailing

    Cost down

    Sold as a Majestic exclusive at £12.50, or £11.00 in a mixed six: the volume-retail route to market trims per-bottle margin against independent-merchant pricing.

  6. 06

    UK duty and VAT

    Cost up

    At 13% ABV the flat UK duty is £2.67 and VAT adds £2.08 of the £12.50 shelf price, so roughly £4.75 is tax before a drop of wine is paid for.

01

Multi-pass hand harvest with on-vine drying in the Marsala area

Cost up

The Wine People pick the Grillo by hand in several passes, leaving part of the crop on the vine until it sheds weight: repeated vineyard passes cost more than one machine sweep.

Perfect Pairings

Dishes that go with this wine

Food Pairing

Sweet-spice dishes that fit an off-dry Grillo

The producer pours it with oysters and chicken curry; Joanna Simon points at tagines and mild curries. The common thread is the wine's touch of residual sugar, 8.3 g/l in the 2019, meeting gentle spice and sweet-savoury food.

Aromatic bridge Strong match

Mild aromatic curries

The producer's own serving list is chicken curry and Indian food. Korma's coconut and almond sweetness meets the wine's honeyed tropical fruit. Its 8 grams or so of sugar a litre cushion gentle spice in a way a bone-dry Grillo cannot.

Try with: Chicken korma · Chicken tikka masala · Massaman curry · More pairings →

Sweet balance Strong match

Tagines and spiced rice

Moroccan-spiced rice and tagines both work. Dried apricot in the dish mirrors dried fruit in the glass, and sugar meeting sugar keeps both sides tasting complete.

Try with: Lamb tagine · Chicken biryani · Moroccan couscous

Body matching Good match

Rich shellfish, the producer's call

The Wine People list oysters, seafood and shellfish first on their own sheet. The yeast-fed body at 13% carries sweet crab and prawn meat. Aim for richer preparations: it is not the wine for lean, plain seafood.

Try with: Oysters · Tandoori prawns · Salt and pepper prawns

Fat cutting Good match

Creamy, buttery spiced dishes

The acidity is pivotal: that grapefruit-pith cut is what clears butter and cream. Paneer butter masala or a korma's cashew base gets refreshed rather than coated.

Try with: Paneer butter masala · Chicken korma · Roast butternut squash · More pairings →

Salt balance Good match

Salty hard cheeses

Comté, aged Gouda and Parmigiano are the cheeses to try. Salt against the wine's touch of sugar is the classic counterplay, and the nutty finish echoes aged rinds.

Try with: Aged Parmigiano · Comté · Mature Gouda

Avoid Clash

Fierce chilli heat or delicate steamed fish

Vindaloo-level chilli heat magnifies the honeyed weight into exactly the cloying, heavy character that some find in it. A delicately steamed white fish is flattened by dried-fruit richness. Keep the spice gentle and the dishes generous.

Skip with: Vindaloo · Sichuan hotpot · Steamed sea bass · Pairing guide →

Drinking + cellar

Drink young: no cellar case for this Grillo

Decanter's drinking window for the 2019 was just two years, and nothing in the make-up argues for holding: screwcap, tank-raised, and only months on lees. Buy the current vintage and drink it within about three years.

Decanting
Not needed

Pour it straight from the bottle.

Serving temperature
8-12°C

Aim for the cooler end on a warm day; warmer end opens up more aromatics.

Cellar potential
Low

Built for immediate drinking: raised in tank with three to four months on its yeast, and no oak. Decanter's window for the 2019 was just two years.

Buy now or wait?
Buy now

£12.50 for a 75cl bottle of the 2025, at Majestic, is the best price we track, and we have no signal of further discounting.

Sources & trust

Sources for this Nero Oro page

Prices & stock

Read directly from each retailer’s public product page once a day. Last refresh: 27 Oct 2026, 02:18 BST. We do not hold stock and we do not accept payment for placement.

Confidence · High
Who owns this label

The name on the label is a brand of The Wine People, not the estate that grew the grapes. Nero Oro is a brand of The Wine People, a Trento wine company whose range comes from six regions of Italy: its own website lists Nero Oro among its brands, with the Grillo, Nero d'Avola and Riserva wines. How we tell estate, shop and brand labels apart.

Confidence · High
Tasting notes

Drawn from published drinker ratings, summarised in our own words. A crowd read across many tasters, not a single critic.

Confidence · Medium
Appellation rules & ageing

From the official Italian disciplinare for this denomination, cross-checked against the Ministry of Agriculture register.

Confidence · High
Why it costs what it costs

Our 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 · Medium
Drink window & cellar potential

Style guidance for this kind of wine at this price point. Treat it as advice, not a forecast for the bottle in your hand.

Confidence · Medium

Common Questions

It is an off-dry Sicilian white made from Grillo grown around Marsala, part-dried to concentrate the juice, and labelled Sicilia DOC. The brand belongs to The Wine People, a negociant house in Trento, and the style borrows the appassimento method better known from Amarone.

It is off-dry rather than sweet: the 2019 vintage carried 8.3 g/l of residual sugar, balanced by grapefruit-pith acidity. Dried grapes give it a honeyed, candied-fruit richness, so it reads riper than a standard dry Grillo, but it is nowhere near a dessert wine.

By drying grapes before fermentation. For this wine some bunches are twisted on the vine from mid-August and others dry on mats for around 15 days, losing 10 to 15% of their weight; the lots then ferment together at 17 to 18C and the wine rests three to four months on fine lees.

Nero Oro is a brand of The Wine People, a Trento-based negociant, with Stefano Girelli as the creative force behind it. The Grillo is bought from growers around Marsala rather than farmed on a single estate, which is why no single winery name appears on the label.

The producer serves it with oysters, shellfish and chicken curry, and its off-dry weight suits sweet-spiced food: kormas, biryanis, tagines and Moroccan-spiced rice. Salty hard cheeses such as aged Gouda or Parmigiano also play well against the honeyed fruit.

£12.50 a bottle at Majestic, dropping to £11.00 a bottle in any mixed six; it is a Majestic exclusive in the UK. The current listed vintage is 2024, at 13% ABV under screwcap.

You May Also Appreciate

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.

Nero Oro Grillo Appassimento , Sicily