Sicily

This reminds me of the time we intended to compare and contrast Zinfandel wines made from grapes grown at different latitudes.  In our mind's eye we assumed northern California was a higher latitude than southern Italy.  It isn't.  They are pretty much the same latitude so our tasting of examples from both places morphed into a contrast of wine cultures.  Based on wine styles our conclusion was: California makes cocktail wines; Europe makes drier dinner wines.

Sicily is an Italian island in the Mediterranean Sea so to our way of thinking, it must be small.  Islands are small, right?  Wrong again.  This island contains twenty-three DOCs (wine appellations) and one DOCG, a guaranteed highest quality level appellation.  The island itself is a DOC, making it Italy's largest wine appellation. 

Six thousand years ago Greek traders introduced the first vines to Sicilian soil.  Three thousand years ago they brought their winemaking skills and technology to the island and the Sicilian wine industry was born.  As "the Crossroads of the Mediterranean," that industry flourished.

So not only is Sicily huge with a very long winemaking history, it is also very diverse in its winemaking culture.  Twenty-four percent of Sicily is mountainous allowing for Sicily to reflect the same gamut of climates the mainland has.  The Val Demone in the northeast side of Sicily is home to the finest wines of Sicily.  That is where Mount Etna reigns as the highest peak in Italy with vineyards inhabiting elevations up to 4,000 feet.  The red wines made from the Nero Mascalese grape are comparable to Barolo.  The Bianco from the Caricante grape has a Riesling-like character.

The most well known wine of Sicily is Marsala and it is sourced from the Val di Mazara on the west side of the island.  The Val di Noto is on the southeast side and it provides our store shelves with Sicily's most popular red, Nero d'Avola.  Catarratto is the most widely planted white grape but most of it is destined for Marsala.  Grillo and Inzolia are the most popular white table wine grapes.  In all, Sicily offers sixty-five native grape varieties.

Now you know what an incredible place Sicily is in the wine industry.  We have to stop this too-large undertaking at some point but not before this last tidbit: Being an arid island, Sicilian vineyards benefit from breezes that cool vineyards and prevent mildew and rot from getting started so there is a disproportionately large amount of organic farming going on there.