From the atlas
Sagace
At A Glance
Wines: Langhe Nebbiolo, Sicilia Rosso Grapes: Nebbiolo, Nero d'Avola Appellations: Langhe DOC (Piemonte), Sicilia DOC Cellar approach: Extended maceration and old oak on the Nebbiolo; stainless steel throughout on the Nero d'Avola
The Producer
Sagace puts two Italian red wines under one label: a Langhe Nebbiolo from Piemonte in the northwest and a Sicilia Rosso from the island in the south. The two wines share nothing in the cellar. The Nebbiolo is fermented on its skins for more than a month, aged in large old oak vessels, rested in concrete, and bottled without filtration. The Nero d'Avola goes into stainless steel and stays there. Founding date, winemaker, ownership, and vineyard holdings are not documented in any verified source. What is documented is the contrast between the wines, and that contrast is sharp enough to carry the story.
Place
The Langhe is a hilly zone in southern Piemonte, the appellation that gives Barolo and Barbaresco their address but also licenses a broader category of wines from the same region. Langhe Nebbiolo is a DOC designation for Nebbiolo grown in Piemonte, typically made in an earlier-drinking style than the grand crus of Barolo or Barbaresco. Nebbiolo is demanding: it demands high acidity, firm tannin, and significant skin contact to develop colour and extract. The long maceration used here, 35 to 45 days, is not a casual choice. It is an intervention that pushes the grape toward grip, depth, and age-readiness rather than early softness.
Sicilia DOC is the island-wide appellation for Nero d'Avola, a thick-skinned black grape that ripens to high sugar and concentrated dark fruit in the Sicilian heat. Stainless steel keeps that fruit clean and forward, trading the slow integration of oak for transparency to the grape and its sun-warmed character.
Soil And Site
No verified source documents the vineyard parcels, soil types, vine ages, elevations, or specific growing areas for either wine. What is confirmed: Langhe DOC Nebbiolo from Piemonte, and Sicilia DOC Nero d'Avola from Sicily. The cellar choices are documented precisely; the field origins are not.
Story
Sagace is not yet a documented story in the conventional sense. No founding date, no named winemaker, no family arc appears in any verified source. What the two wines reveal instead is a deliberate decision about method. The Nebbiolo is handled as if time and extraction matter: skins left in contact for over a month, spontaneous fermentation without added yeast, fourteen months in large old oak, a rest in concrete, and unfiltered bottling. Each choice slows the wine and adds material. The Nero d'Avola receives none of this treatment. It goes directly into stainless steel, which means no oxygen from wood, no colour or tannin from cask, no risk of losing the vivid dark-fruit register Nero d'Avola produces at its best.
Whether the contrast reflects a single winemaker's two-track philosophy or a sourcing arrangement across two separate regions is not documented. The wines themselves make the argument clearly enough: slow extraction and oxidative complexity in the north, bright preservation in the south.
Vineyards And Cellar
For the Langhe Nebbiolo, the winemaking sequence is precise and demanding. Fermentation begins spontaneously, without commercial yeast, which gives slower, less predictable fermentation and typically adds more complex secondary aromatics. Skin contact runs for 35 to 45 days, long enough to draw out Nebbiolo's full tannin and pigment load and to develop the savoury depth the grape is capable of. After fermentation, the wine moves to large old oak vessels for fourteen months, where it picks up integrated oak character without aggressive new-wood flavour. A period in concrete follows before unfiltered bottling, which preserves the texture and flavour compounds that filtration would strip.
For the Sicilia Rosso, stainless steel is the only vessel used from fermentation through to bottling. Steel is neutral, temperature-controlled, and oxygen-free: it keeps Nero d'Avola's dark cherry and strawberry fruit intact and gives the finished wine a clean, vivid quality that contrasts directly with the Nebbiolo's worked complexity.
Wines
Sagace Langhe Nebbiolo 2023 is 100% Nebbiolo from the Langhe DOC. It carries the full imprint of its cellar treatment: high acidity and substantial tannin are the frame, with cherry, rosehip, cinnamon, sandalwood, bitter orange, black tea, and vanilla in the aromatic register. Rose comes through on the palate alongside red fruit and spice. The oak is present but described as upright rather than dominant. This is not a light, early-access Nebbiolo. The skin contact and the ageing time give it grip and a spicy depth that needs food or patience.
Sagace Sicilia Rosso 2023 is 100% Nero d'Avola from the Sicilia DOC. Dark cherry, ripe strawberry, sweet liquorice, and tar come forward in the aroma, supported by blueberry, southern herbs, tobacco, and a thread of dark earth. On the palate, dark berries and plum are framed by a fresh backbone and fine tannins that keep the wine cohesive. The stainless-steel ageing holds all of that fruit forward and clean.
The two wines sit at opposite ends of an Italian winemaking spectrum: one built through extraction and time, one preserved through neutrality.
In The Glass
The Langhe Nebbiolo opens with cherry and rosehip, then sandalwood, cinnamon, and black tea deepen behind the fruit. In the mouth, acidity arrives first, high and direct, followed by firm, grainy tannin typical of extended Nebbiolo maceration. The mid-palate fills with spice and rose, and bitter orange and vanilla appear in the finish from the oak ageing. The wine is layered but not soft: it asks for time or a dish with weight.
The Sicilia Rosso is more immediate. Dark cherry and strawberry rise out of the glass alongside blueberry and warm herb. The palate follows the nose closely, with plum adding depth and a fresh acidity keeping the wine from heaviness. Tannins are fine and cohesive rather than demanding. The stainless steel has kept the fruit vivid and the profile uncomplicated: generously fruited, steadily built, and willing to be drunk young.
A Bottle To Understand It
Start with the Sagace Langhe Nebbiolo 2023. It is the more ambitious of the two wines and the one that shows what the label is doing with cellar craft. Nebbiolo is already one of Italy's most demanding grapes, prone to high tannin and acidity, and the choices made here, spontaneous fermentation, more than a month on skins, fourteen months in old oak, concrete rest, unfiltered bottling, push it further toward complexity and longevity rather than softness. In the glass it gives cherry, rosehip, rose, spice, sandalwood, and black tea, held together by firm tannin and bright acidity. It is not a casual midweek red. It rewards a winter table, a slow braise, or simply a few years in a cool cellar.
Anecdote
No source-backed producer-specific episode is available for Sagace. The people behind the label, the founding decision, and any pivotal moment in the wine's history are undocumented in verified sources. The cellar contrast between the two wines, a Nebbiolo fermented for over a month on its skins and a Nero d'Avola kept clean in steel, is the most retellable fact, but the human story behind that contrast is not yet known.
Final Word
Sagace makes two wines from opposite ends of Italy with opposite cellar philosophies. The Nebbiolo from Piemonte is slow, extracted, and built for depth. The Nero d'Avola from Sicily is vivid, clean, and built for fruit. Without documented vineyard or producer background, the wines differ in their documented cellar methods alone, and method here is specific and deliberate. Both repay attention.
Sources
- https://www.systembolaget.se/produkt/vin/sagace-5788701/
- https://www.winetable.se/drycker/sagace-langhe-nebbiolo-2020/
- https://www.systembolaget.se/produkt/vin/sagace-7679901/
- https://www.livetsgoda.se/sagace-sicilia-rosso-sol-ryggrad-och-siciliansk-nerv/