Sicily

The shooting star of Italian wine exports.

Sicily is with 25.700 km² the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. And with more than 100,000 hectares, it is also Italy's largest wine-growing region. That is about as big as the sum of all growing areas in Germany.

Wine growing has been going on here for a very long time, only recently wine storage vessels and grape seeds from the Middle Bronze Age were found during excavations. The Greeks colonised the island in the eighth century B.C. and brought their winegrowing techniques and many vines with them, some of the grape varieties cultivated today are due to it. Like most islands, Sicily experienced a lively history under various colonial rule. Many of them also influenced viticulture. The Arabs tolerated the cultivation of wine, but forced the production of table grapes and raisins. Both are still an important part of Sicilian agriculture today. The Romans and the Bourbons, on the other hand, favoured wine, the British "invented" the Marsala, named after the Arabic name of the ancient port city in the west, Marsah el Allah.

With its well-balanced climate, influenced by the sea, hilly terrain and mostly volcanic soils, Sicily's coastal regions are productive wine regions. For decades, Sicily was therefore a producer of bulk wine, most of which was delivered in tankers and ships to other wine regions as blended wine. It was not until the 1990s and 2000s that the radical turnaround began. Through modern cellar technology and more profitable education methods in the vineyards, it was suddenly possible to produce wine of higher quality at a favourable price. Also in the big cooperatives, which dominated the production at that time. At the same time, demand increased as many large supermarket chains worldwide discovered wine as a fast seller and generously listed it. This fight (especially with Australia) was clearly won by the Sicilians.

Nero d'Avola became an export hit.

The large landowners quickly realised that a lot could be achieved with good quality and invested in quality measures. Today there are still these family businesses like Planeta, Tasca d'Almerita, Cusumano or Donnafugata, who are in charge of the upswing. In addition, there were some lateral entrants such as Cornelissen, COS or Marco de Grazia (Tenuta delle Terre Nere), as well as the old-established Benanti family, who focused on the revitalization of old varieties such as Cerasuolo di Vittoria, forgotten regions or on organic or winemaking in amphorae - and thus brought a further upswing.

The new - ancient - boom region lies on the Aetna.

This region was still dying in 2001, and there were only 14 wineries left. Planting rights were sold to the investors in the Maremma, one vineyard after the other was no longer cultivated. Too steep, too laborious manual work, too little yield from the Albarello vineyards laid out in terraces at altitudes of over 1,000 metres.

When the career changers suddenly let the worldwide wine critics sit up and take notice with their elegant wines, all the well-known wine-growing families were again interested in "Mamma Etna"as the volcano is called here because the volcanic soil is very fertile. Today there are again almost 200 producers, most of them with tiny plots and a few hectares of vineyard. Both the mineral white wines from Catarrato, Carricante and Minella, but above all the elegant Rosso dell'Etna from Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio are currently more than sought after by wine lovers all over the world, as there are extremely few of them. One could classify these red wines from the Aetna quite between best Burgunder and Barbaresco.

White wines dominate in Sicily.

Hard to believe, but still about 60 percent of all wines from Sicily are white wines. The most important are the local varieties Grillo, Inzolia, Catarratto and Carricante, as well as a variety of Trebbiano. Meanwhile there are also Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon and many others, which are mostly used for white cuvées (even Riesling is now available here).

The most common red varieties are Nero d´Avola and the two Nerello. Complemented by the typical international varieties Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Alicante. In recent years, many wineries have discovered that Syrah produces excellent aromatic-spicy results here, so Syrah is currently being replanted extensively.

Marsala made history.

Traditionally, Sicily is inextricably linked to the outstanding Marsala. The vines grow in the hot, dry plains of Western Sicily on a low yielding soil called Sciari. Marsala is a wonderful liqueur wine. 1773 by the Englishman John Woodhouse. „fictitious“ and exported it to the British Isles, where it quickly became popular. It is said that Admiral Nelson had his Mediterranean fleet supplied with the delicious dessert wine. In the middle of the 19th century, Marsala reached a quality that is between Madeira and Sherry. Unfortunately, the traditional sprinkled wine went out of fashion, although with the lighter, dry Vergine style, a "more modern" variant onto the market. However, it is still indispensable for Italian cuisine. The Renaissance is probably only a matter of time. The most sought-after sweet wine at present is the Passito di Pantelleria, a Moscato (Zibibbo) made from dried grapes of the famous small island in the southwest, which Tunisia is closer than Sicily.

The upswing also brought with it a great deal of confusion about the regions of origin, with more than 20 DOC regions emerging in a very short space of time, often involving only a few producers. Soon it became clear that no one would notice, and when the bottle says Sicily, everyone knows where it came from. So almost all wineries produced one or more Sicilia IGT. With the 2012 harvest, this became the comprehensive DOC Sicilia with several subdivisions.

There is currently only one DOCG - where the red, fruity Cerasuolo di Vittoria comes from - and 23 DOC regions, which are the most important: Alcamo, Etna, Malvasia delle Lipari, Mamertino, Marsala, Menfi, Monreale, Noto, Pantelleria, Salaparuta, Siracusa and Vittoria - and of course the comprehensive Sicilia DOC. SUPERIORE.DE