Nico was conceived back in 1980 by Dino Illuminati and his enologist Dott. Spinelli, a great man from the Marche region. Dott. Spinelli was known as the greatest red winemaker in the region, in this century. Nico, named after Dino’s grandfather and the founder of this estate winery, is made of 100% Montepulciano and is intended to be a red wine of considerable depth and character found in wines like Amarone, Barolo, Brunello and Hermitage. Nico was conceived to be a Montepulciano red wine with a style like Amarone. That is, the ripe picked grapes are laid out on mesh sheets to dry up and evaporate some of the liquid in them thereby concentrating the intensity of the remaining juice. When the grapes are then dried out sufficiently (but not too much) the winemaking then proceeds. The result is an intensely flavored, rich, deep, red wine that matches very well with roasted rabbit, venison, tagliatelle and rich country cooking. The taste is big, rustic and powerful. For optimum enjoyment, decant for two hours and serve at room temperature.