by John and Jennifer Verplanck,The Black Sheep Wine and Beer Shop
The short flight from Rome crosses over the island and loops
back to land at Palermo, Sicily’s largest and capital city, and after Naples,
Italy’s second worst traffic. The taxi
crawls its way into the city amidst honking horns and at least a billion motor scooters.
Of course there is opera, too. The iconic Teatro Massimo in Palermo is the
largest opera house in Italy and the second largest in Europe.
Sicily’s best known wine, by far, is Marsala, created oddly
enough, by an Englishman, John Woodhouse, in 1773. The innocuous cooking wines of the same name
are poor reflections of the real thing and have given the wine a bad
reputation. The most popular Marsala
sipping wine is sweet, fortified, silky and sensuous. There are many styles of
Marsala, even some that are unfortified, produced by the ancient perpetuo
method, similar to Solera Sherry. You’ll find the city of Marsala west of
Palermo. Donnafugata has a large Marsala cellar there with tastings and Marco
de Bartoli offers the original perpetuo style.
Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean and a
treat. Along with stunning vistas, great cuisine, spectacular beaches and
nature preserves, world heritage sites and ancient architecture, there are hundreds
of wineries in Sicily! Although wine has been produced here for millennia, in
the past most wine was sold wholesale, “vini da taglio”, or literally, wines of
cut, for cutting or blending purposes. There is a renaissance in wine production now,
with renewed focus on quality as well as the cultivation of over 20 different indigenous
grapes.
The island of Sicily
is a diverse place with many different patches of unique “terroir”. As well as
discovering new great wineries, you may want to try the famous ones, Planeta,
Regaleali and Donnafugata. Planeta,
itself, has six boutique wineries all over the island, each showcasing a
distinct wine place. You’ll find extremes from mountain to beach, volcanic,
sandy or clay soils and accompanying temperatures and humidity.
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From Palermo, it’s east, along the coast to Messina, the
easternmost point, then south to Taormina, in the shadow of Mt. Etna, and on to
Siracusa, on the southeast coast. If you are a seafood lover, you will be in
heaven. And if you are a gelato person,
it doesn’t get any better than Sicily.
It was invented here.
The bulk of the red grapes cultivated in Sicily are Nero
d’Avola, followed by Frapatto and Nerello Mascalese, the first two being
blended for the island’s famous Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG. Some of the best grapes are grown on the
slopes of the region’s volcano, Mt. Etna, which, by the way, is a very active
volcano. You might want to think twice
about going up to the edge and looking in.
Fabulous reds, mostly from Nerello
Mascalese with some Nerello Cappuccio added and delicious crisp whites made
from the local Carricante, are what Etna is known for. Almonds and prickly pears grow wild there, too.
The north side of Mt. Etna, along the river Alcantara,is
the home of Nerello Mascalese, also known as Etna Rosso wine.
In the mountainous heart of Sicily, Regaleali is a vast
estate, owned by the Tasca d’Almerita family since 1837 and famous for its fine
wines and as an epicurean destination for its old-world style cooking school
and working farm. It’s a full circle experience with everything served having
been grown there.
Located to the south of the westernmost tip of Sicily, you
will find the windswept island of Pantelleria, called the Black Pearl of the
Mediterranean. A luscious, honey colored
dessert wine, Passito di Pantelleria, is still produced here, but it may not be
around for much longer. This labor
intensive jewel is made from local Zibibbo grapes, using techniques that have
changed little over the centuries. The grapes are gathered when they are
extremely ripe and then put out in the blazing sun for 10 days on large mats
made of bamboo canes. The wine is fermented for a long time from these grapes,
resulting in intense aromas and complex flavors of apricot, figs, honey and
dates.
The tiny Aeolian island of Lipari, off Sicily’s Northern
coast, produces another delicious passito dessert wine known as Malvasia di
Lipari, in the same manner. It's one of the most ancient wines produced in Italy.
To see these rugged volcanic islands is to experience a whole
different side of Italy.
© 2018 Text John and Jennifer Verplanck, all rights reserved.
