Val di Mazara–West Glistens

Alberello Pantesco

As the sun sets on 2014, both Pantelleria and Marsala are glistening.  On November 26, 2014 Italy’s Minister of Agriculture announced that UNESCO has awarded World Heritage status to the traditional bush-training system for grapevines used on the island of Pantelleria known as alberello pantesco.  Planted in shallow craters dug in the black volcanic soil and sheltered from the Sahara’s winds by lava stone walls, the alberello vines of Pantelleria’s Zibibbo (Muscat of Alexandria) variety produce the island’s golden Moscato di Pantelleria and Passito di Pantelleria wines.  This recognition of alberello pantesco is the first time that UNESCO has distinguished an agricultural practice as an “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity”.  Donnafugata’s Kabir Moscato di Pantelleria and Ben Ryé Passito di Pantelleria are pure expressions of the fruit of this ancient viticulture – and an ideal way to toast the christening of the alberello pantesco.  We salute the winegrowers of Pantelleria for preserving and protecting their island’s true patrimony.

Marsala  - Pantone's Color of the Year 2015

On the cusp of the New Year, Marsala has been christened in a different realm – the world of visual design.   Pantone has named Marsala the “Color of the Year” for 2015.  It is a reddish-brown color (#18-1438), evocative of an older and rarer Marsala fortified wine type known as Marsala Rubino.  Beginning in 1984 the Marsala DOC reinstated this ruby version of Marsala (which was more common in the nineteenth century).  A blend of Sicily’s native varieties, Pignatello (Perricone), Nero d’Avola and/or Nerello Mascalese, Marsala Rubino is made in three styles – dolce, secco, and semisecco.  In introducing Pantone 18-1438, Pantone describes the color as “naturally robust and earthy wine red, Marsala enriches our minds, bodies and souls”.  Following this debut of the color Marsala to the world, we hope that the winegrowers of Marsala will themselves rediscover the beauty of their authentic Marsala Rubino (and Vergine) wines – and Marsala once more will enrich our minds, bodies and souls.

Happy New Year to Pantelleria, Marsala and to Sicily!

Sicilia en Primeur 2014

Sicilia en Primeur is an annual event sponsored by Assovini Sicilia, a dynamic association of Sicilian wine producers who work together to promote their island and wines.  The 11^th edition of this tasting event took place this year from May 27-29 at the Therasia resort on the island of Vulcano in the Aeolian Archipelago.  Thirty-five Sicilian producers presented a sampling of their most recent vintages to a group of journalists from around the world.  Beyond the breathtaking backdrop of Vulcano’s blue sea and sky, there was a spectrum of flavors and places to experience – coastal Grillo from Marsala, high altitude Catarratto from Valledolmo, vintage Nero d’Avola from Riesi, old-vine Nerello Mascalese from Etna, young-vine Nocera from Faro, and tiny-production Malvasia di Lipari from the nearby island of Salina.  More than any words, these wines revealed Sicily’s diversity and identity as a modern old world wine region which is embracing its native vine varieties and unique growing areas.

We invite you to sample some of the sights and sounds of this exceptional event at the following link: http://www.cronachedigusto.it/video/13530-sicilia-en-primeur-2014-un-augurio-al-vino-siciliano-.html

Vinitaly 2014 and Expo MIlan 2015

Fran and Bill at Vinitaly 2014 (photo courtesy of Cronache di Gusto)

We recently returned from Vinitaly in Verona.  As you enter the fair through VeronaFiere’s main gate called Cangrande, the Sicilia Padiglione (pavilion) is among the first to catch your eye.  This four-day wine trade show, the largest in Italy, is open to the public on the first day only.  As in recent years, the Sicily pavilion is a magnet for consumers.  The Donnafugata, Planeta, Tasca, Cusumano and Settesoli stands, among others, were packed with wine lovers savoring the vibrant flavors of Sicily.  In the corner of the pavilion is the “Business Area” where Sicilian wine producers meet with importers, distributors and retailers during the remaining three days.  It is also an area where the Region of Sicily sponsors a program of lectures and panel discussions.  This year the program included events on individual wine appellations, like the Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG in the Val di Noto and the Monreale DOC in the Val di Mazara – West.  There were also a series of panels on Sicilian extra-virgin olive oil and the cultural highlights of the Sicilian wine road.

Among the many initiatives supported by the Region of Sicily’s then-current Secretary of Agriculture, Dario Cartabellotta at this year's Vinitaly, is the Bio-Mediterranean Cluster at the Expo Milan 2015, the international exposition which will run from May 1 until October 31, 2015.  The theme of Expo Milan 2015 is “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life” and the Bio-Mediterranean Cluster will be a pavilion which showcases the bio-diversity and richness of the Mediterranean’s agriculture and foods.  Sicily, consistent with its geographic and historic role at the center of the Mediterranean, is slated to lead the Bio-Mediterranean Cluster (including twelve other countries) in this high profile event.  Sicily’s wine, fruits, vegetables, cheeses, seafood, breads and sweets will all be on delicious display.  We hope to see you there!

Putting Sicily on the Map

Sicilia  in the Ebstorf Mappamundi (V&A)

In the thirteenth century world map known as the Ebstorf Mappamundi the island of Sicily was depicted as a plump apple, pomegranate or peach-shaped fruit.  While the original of this map was destroyed in World War II, there is a glorious color reproduction of it in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.  From the Classical Age through the Middle Ages, Sicily was at the center of European politics and culture.  Celebrated for its fertility and coveted for its strategic position in the Middle Sea between Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, Sicily was the very heart of the Mediterranean.  This may come as a surprise in our modern era.  Since the earliest waves of immigrants who left their island home to find a better life in the New World in the early twentieth century, Sicily languished as a long-forgotten corner of Europe in the public’s imagination.  In the tradition of its honored poets, playwrights, and storytellers, Sicily’s winegrowers are now putting Sicily on the world’s cultural map.  The vibrant and diverse flavors of Sicilian wine are bringing Sicily to life for a new generation of wine lover – genuinely seeking to understand this place called Sicilia.

Last week in London, we were honored and thrilled for our book, The World of Sicilian Wine, to win the 2013 André Simon Drink Book Award: http://www.andresimon.co.uk/awards.html.  We hope that in our own small way we have helped to put Sicily on the map.  In the words of an esteemed Sicilian winegrower upon learning this news of the André Simon Drink Book Award, Viva La Sicilia! 

Sestini's Sicily

On the walk leading from Florence's Piazza della Signoria, past the Uffizi Gallery, and to the Ponte Vecchio you could understandably stroll by this fortress-like building bearing the name Accademia Dei Georgofili (Georgofili Academy) without taking notice.  This is the headquarters of the venerable Florentine society dedicated to the study and promotion of agricultural science.

  

In 1812, Domenico Sestini, a native son of the city, delivered a series of lectures to the members of the Georgofili Academy entitled “Recollections of Sicilian Wines”. Sestini had spent three years traveling around the island and studying the state of Sicilian viticulture and enology from 1774 to 1776.  Much to the astonishment of his elite audience, Sestini proclaimed that Sicilian wine has been prized since ancient times for its “exquisiteness and richness”.  He intended to lecture on seven different subregions, but only got as far as Etna and Vittoria.  Apparently, his words fell on disinterested (if not deaf) ears and he never gave the lectures on the five other subregions intended for the Georgofili’s esteemed members.

The texts of Sestini’s first three lectures are undoubtedly locked away in the Georgofili Academy’s historic archives.  In 1991, they were published by a Palermo-based publisher, Sellerio editore, in a booklet entitled, Memorie sui vini siciliani, the title of Sestini’s original lecture series.  While Sestini’s Tuscan contemporaries were not prepared to believe that Sicily’s winegrowers were capable of teaching northern Italians something about growing grapes and making wine, today two centuries later wine experts and consumers are passionately discovering Sicily as one of Italy’s most fascinating wine regions.  We honor Domenico Sestini for having the courage of his convictions.  Bravo!

Golden Pairing

The Tenuta Gorghi Tondi estate from Mazara del Vallo in Western Sicily produces a dessert wine (passito) called Grillo D’Oro (Golden Grillo).  It is made from dried Grillo grapes which have been graced by muffa nobile (noble rot or botrytis).  Bill and I had the pleasure of enjoying a bottle of the 2010 Grillo D’Oro with family and friends over the holidays.  With aromas of dried apricots, figs, dates, candied orange peel and honey, this dessert wine evokes the fruits which have filled the market gardens of Palermo since the tenth century.  In the mouth, it is velvety sweet, with an acidity that balances the sweet dried fruits and gives the wine freshness.  It was the highlight of our dessert table, a perfect pairing with both the fig-filled Christmas cookies from Sicily called buccellati  (laced with walnuts, pistachios, almonds, oranges and spices) and the buttery Christmas bread from Verona called Pandoro (golden bread).  This wine would also pair well with milder veined cheeses (like a sweet gorgonzola), roasted nuts and dried fruits for dessert.  Squisito!

Sicilian School

From the Sicilian court of King Frederick II in the early 13^th century there emerged a Romantic poetry written in the vernacular language and in a new poetic form – the sonnet.  Frederick II was himself a learned man of science and poetry.  This group of poets and their work, known as the Sicilian School, gave Sicily a literary identity that would survive for future generations of Sicilian poets, playwrights, and patriots.  Their literary invention also was the foundation for the earliest proto-Italian vernacular poetry of Dante and his Divine Comedy.  In his sonnet “A l’aire claro ò vista ploggia dare“ (I have seen a clear sky give rain) Giacomo da Lentini, the most renowned of the Sicilian Romantic poets, could well be describing the stark contradictions that have marked Sicily’s history -- and its ancient culture of wine.

“I have seen a clear sky give rain

and darkness produce light,

and blazing fire become ice,

and cold snow produce heat,

and a sweet thing become bitter

and bitterness transformed to sweetness,

………………………………………………………………”

Karla Mallette, The Kingdom of Sicily, 1100-1250: A Literary History (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005), 176.