Blog: Sicily | Wine region

'If in your blooming age, like that of Nestor, they give you an amphora with Mamertino, give it whatever name you want, but that of the most famous wines.... 'Julius Caesar is attributed this word of fame to a wine, and one of the most famous wines of antiquity, which still thrives in Sicily. Our wine journey through the Italian mainland has come to an end, we are crossing over to the islands, to Sicily and Sardinia, and this quotation serves as a greeting. We know it from school, the prehistory of Sicily is connected with myths and legends, in which the gods proved to be quite hard-drinking lords, who knew how to empty a filled amphora without visible damage. But you have to be able to drink and be happy at the same time in Sicily, because the grapes already ripen there under African light, and all the fire that the sun pours out on the vineyards is later transformed into irrepressible power in the wine.

These are real thoroughbred wines, this Etna bianco or Etna rosso, for example, or the clear golden-yellow Marsala, which exudes the scent of a hundred flowers. Like the wines, like the people - the Sicilians are also full-blooded and spirited, and in the knowledge of their 'culinary stamina' they have created a cuisine to go with their wines, which is literally given over to artful recipes. Maccheroni con le sarde' is spaghetti with a strong and complex sauce of pine nuts, fennel, many herbs and olive oil, seasoned with anchovy pieces, or 'Farsumagru" - rolled beef or veal stuffed with boiled eggs. Cuscusu', the typical fish soup with pasta, and among the desserts the world famous cassata of course. Truly, such sumptuousness lays the safe ground even for the strongest wine! - Gerardo [TS01/23]

"We would like to clarify here once from the outset: The Sicilian wine par excellence does not exist. Although the wine boom of recent decades gave the Sicilian labels crosswise a good reputation, but was mostly enough for the 'convenient' draught horse of the Geographical Indication of Origin (IGT) Sicily. Everything had found a place in this huge pot. Under the term 'southern wines', all the wine-growing zones delivered hyper-concentrated, alcoholic hummers, some of which seemed so jammy that you could almost spoon them out of the glass. There are an incredible number of different production areas in Sicily, all of which have their own forms of expression. If they actually brought them to light, the region would be one of the most sought-after wine zones in Italy anywhere." - Slow Wine