White Wines of Sicily

When someone mentions "Sicilian wine," do you think red or white?  Or maybe fortified, like  iconic Marsala, the "Sticky from Sicily."  

For most people, the sensory image of Sicily is a romantic bucolic setting, with rustic food and jugs of local wine.  Sicily is a major island in the Mediterranean, floating off the southern tip of the Italian peninsula, not far from Tunisia, North Africa.  

Geography has a way of influencing life, like the cultural mashup that's common throughout Sicily, but especially in cities like Palermo, Catania  and Messina, where you can hear Arabic and Italian spoken in street markets.

                                            Michael Corleone in Sicily                                               

It's not practical for some people to travel to Sicily, so they turn to pop culture as a way to experience life in another country.  In 1974,  fictional life in one rural Sicilian village became part of American pop culture, when a young Michael Corleone danced with his new bride, in "Godfather II," whirling past tables laden with platters of food and jugs of wine.

Popularity of Sicilian white wine was still decades in the future, so the wine at the wedding reception was likely red, although probably not Sicily's popular red wine, Nero d'Avola. 

Today, in traditional rural areas of Sicily, a glass of wine may  be vino bianco, from Grillo, Catarratto, Carricante and Inzolia.  In fact, Sicily produces more white wine than red, with Cataratto the most planted wine grape.  Not only that, but the four major white grapes are very adaptable, appearing together, or in various pairs, in most of Sicily's white wines.

Sicilian wine culture is spread across the island, with a lot of it in the shadow of Mt. Etna, the tallest active volcano in Europe.   Throughout the millennia, eruptions of Etna have enriched vineyard soils with deposits of volcanic ash, no where more than in Catania.  On the slopes of Etna, Sicily's two exciting reds -- Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio, thrive.  (See "Nero and Nerello," April 11, 2024) 

Sicilia DOC is an island-wide appellation, encompassing more than 20 DOCs.  Cerasuolo di Vittoria, a red blend from the south coast is Sicily's only DOCG wine.  A handful of DOCs have applied for DOCG, but so far none have succeeded 

Among the hopefuls is Etna DOC, one of Italy's earliest DOC wines, approved in 1968.  Etna Bianco, a dry, mineral-laced blend of Carricante, Cataratto and small amounts of Trebbiano and/or Minella Bianca.  The rule for Carricante is 60% to 100%, but how much is up to the winemaker.  The aim, with Carricante, is to extract attractive flavors that suggest ripe pears and apples, with hints of citrus.   

Grillo is an indigenous white grape that has shown promise in Sicily, but is no longer allowed in non-DOC wines.  Grillo is thought to either be native to Sicily or from Puglia, the heel of Italy's boot.  Once used as a base for Marsala, Grillo is high in sugars but it lost out to Cataratto because of its low-level aromatic intensity.   A dry Grillo is light, lemon-scented and nutty with plenty of up-front stone fruit. Fruitier versions remind me of Viognier and Albarino.

Cataratto

Cataratto is the most planted grape, white or red, in Sicily, but comes second to Trebbiano throughout Italy.  The wide availability makes Cataratto a popular component in blends, like Etna Bianco and Marsala, or with Inzolia.   Planted almost exclusively in western Trapani, Cataratto has been shown through DNA testing to be related to Garganega, the main grape in Soave.

Inzolia can be found in western Sicily and Tuscany, where the grape is called Ansonica.  Inzolia (also spelled "Insolia") is valued for its aromatic qualities and is usually paired with Grillo in Marsala, bottled as a varietal or blended with Cataratto.

Sicilian wine, except maybe for Nero d'Avola, may be scarce in your local market, but these wines have good distribution: Donnafugata, Planeta, Idda, Passopisciaro, Tenuta delle Terre Nere,  Tenuta Regaleali.

End Note:  At one time or another, all of these Sicilian white grapes have been used in Marsala, the iconic fortified Sicilian wine.  Traditionally made from Grillo and Inzolia, Marsala now includes high percentages of Cataratto. Modern Marsala comes in three styles: sweet Fine, medium Superiore and drier Vergine.  (A more detailed look at Marsala, Madeira and Malaga, the trio of Mediterranean classic dessert wines, is coming August 23.)

 

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