The Scala’s Cirò Rosso is fashioned entirely from Calabria’s most celebrated red varietal, Gaglioppo, a relatively thick-skinned grape known for producing rustic and savory wines. Imbued with an expected amount of ‘southern solar power,’ the wine’s boisterous nature and riper fruit characters are kept in check via a vinification that sees it raised entirely in a mixture of stainless steel and cement tanks. Concentrated and wild in its aromatics, there is an almost smoky amaro-meets-camphor-inflected red and black fruit quality that dominates the nose, with a distinctive purple flower overtone lending lift. Charming and wiley in its rusticity, the 2021 Cirò Rosso seems one of those wines that just begs for something from the grill – be it protein or vegetable. Hearty, but at no point cloying or overdone, notes of singed citrus rind, fleshy raspberry, Bing cherry, and exotic eastern spices bring needed verve to this killer southern wine.