Marzamemi Memories

The ninth edition of an annual wine fair called Calici di Stelle (Star-Filled Goblets) takes place this evening in the picturesque seaside town of Marzamemi near Sicily’s southeastern tip.  Wine producers from the eastern half of the Val di Noto – including the Eloro, Noto, and Syracuse appellations – will be presenting wines made from both indigenous and international vine varieties.  In addition to the well-ripened Nero d’Avola wines from Pachino, there will be fresh and passito (dried) versions of the Moscato di Noto and Moscato di Sircasusa dessert wines and an elegant dry white wine from the Cantine Gulino estate made from 100% of a rare native variety called Albanello.

On our first trip to Sicily together in June 2008 we were welcomed to the Val di Noto by Salvatore Marino, a talented young winemaker who now is the enologist of the Marabino estate near Pachino.  At the end of our day together Salvatore took us off the wine road to explore Marzamemi.  He showed us the ex-tunny works (tonnara) that had first been established during the period of Muslim rule beginning in the ninth century A.D.   There was a fancifully painted boat docked in the harbor.  It had what appeared to be Arabic words and images decorating its hull – echoes of those distant Saracen rulers.

At the end of our visit, Salvatore brought us to a bar/gelateria next to the tonnara to try the black mulberry (gelso nero) and pistachio granite.  This was not your grandfather’s Italian ice!  It was a local version of whipped granita called cremolata.  Unlike gelato which is made with milk or cream, the cremolata is made with only fruit, water, and sugar.  The pistachio and mulberry flavors were as vibrant and intense as the Sicilian sun which blazed that late June afternoon.  This is a flavor memory!

  

Tonight we toast Salvatore Marino and the other winegrowers of the Val di Noto who will be sharing the flavors of their wines in the restored Palazzo Villadorata (the ex-tunny works) in the heart of Marzamemi.  Grazie for the memories.

Santa Tresa

Feudo di Santa Tresa’s 35 hectares (86 acres) of vineyards spread out within the heart of a triangle outlined by the village of Roccazzo and the towns of Acate and Vittoria. Massimo Maggio, also enologist at Vittoria’s Maggio Vini winery, and Stefano Girelli, a wine entrepreneur from Northern Italy, began this project in 2001.  The soil is classic terra rossa, sandy red ferrous soil covering limestone rock.  Comprising a villa built in 1697, a one hundred year-old palmento, and a well dedicated to Saint Teresa (shortened in Sicilian to Santa Tresa), this biologically farmed vineyard produces delicate and elegant red and white wines.  The 2008 Cerasuolo di Vittoria, the most important appellation wine of the Vittoria area, that I tasted recently was pale reddish-brown in color with a delicate nose of red fruits and underbrush. Astringency, bitterness, and sourness danced with delicacy and finesse on the palate. The wine was fully mature, yet remained refreshing, the kind of wine that invites rather than challenges, that stays in the background of a meal rather than dominates it. Enjoy it with a delicate morsel of roast chicken and even meaty fish.

As is the case with most Cerasuolo di Vittoria wines, it is 60% to 70% Nero d’Avola filled out with Frappato, a red grape native to the area.  What makes this wine so delicate and easy-to-drink? Frappato makes a paler, less dense in the mouth, and faster-to-mature wine than Nero d’Avola.  The sandy soil of the area reduces the pigmentation and tannic structure of the mature grape skins. Furthermore, after the fermentation, Massimo Maggio matured the wine in neutral containers rather than new oak barrels where it could pick up wood aromas and more astringency and bitterness. 

If you want to learn more about Feudo di Santa Tresa, visit the winery website, www.santatresa.it.  It is one of my favorites. With Sicilian folksongs and the sunlit countryside in the background, Girelli, speaking in easy-to-understand English, and Maggio, in Sicilian with English subtitles, form a duet. In tones, words and phrases, that evoke the balance and humility of their Cerasuolo di Vittoria, they tell the story of the estate, how the grapes are grown, and how the wine is made.

Massimo Maggio observing roots of Favino plant, used to fix nitrogen in soil