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| Mothia “Mosaikon” Grillo Sicilia 2024 Viteadovest “Bayt” Terre Siciliane 2024 Ayunta Rosso nerello mascalese 2021 Gurrieri Cerasuolo di Vittoria 2024 Curtaz “Ananke” Nero d’Avola Sicilia 2022 |
| This week, we’re tasting five wines from the Italian island of Sicily. If you drive south through Campania and then through Calabria (not recommended due to interminable work on the autostrada that can make the 405 during rush hour seem like a trip to the moon on gossamer wings), eventually taking the short ferry from Reggio Calabria to Messina, you exit the ferry and find yourself abruptly no longer in Europe. Of course, you’ve literally remained in Europe, but the vibe is utterly different from the mainland you’ve just left. Perhaps it’s the millennia of successive colonization, from Phoenician and Greek antiquity, Arab and Norman conquest, to the Spanish and Hohenstaufen, or perhaps it’s the presence of a dramatically active volcano, or perhaps it’s the devastating earthquakes that remade the southwestern portion of the island in the 17th century, or perhaps none of these political and geological elements truly factor in in any significant way. The truth is that from a vinous perspective, Sicily is a microcosm unto itself and is responsible for some of the most stimulating wines being made in Italy today.
We’re starting with a white wine from the northwest coast of the island, made from the local grillo grape. Grillo is one of the historic grapes employed in the production of sweet Marsala, but in this incarnation, it’s bone-dry and crisp. Next, another grillo-based wine from the same region, but utterly different, as it sees a few days of skin contact. Then, shifting to the northeast, we’re tasting a red wine from the north slopes of Mt. Etna made from nerello mascelese; this grape is capable of making truly profound wines with unbridled lashings of tannin, but here, it’s fermented in a more infused rather than extracted approach, all in stainless steel, and you really want to wrap your lips around it. To finish, two wines from the southwest of the island. The first is a traditional blend of frappato (juice, lift) and nero d’avola (feral meatiness); the second is all nero, |