With 485 wineries and 8000 grape growers across a diversity of soils and climates, it is a leader in Italy that in recent years has focused on making very high quality wines. Plan ahead and make an appointment for a tasting and vineyard tour. You may even want to stay at a winery–there are many…
Category: Sicilian Wine
Drinking Sangue In Palermo
Yes, “Sangue,” meaning blood. It’s a sweet wine typical to Palermo–a cross between Marsala and Zibibbo. The locals drink it at the Taverna Azzurra in La Vucciria market. And here, Eric and I are raising a glass–definitely to a sweeter time. Hang in there, we’ll get through this! I got through drinking Sangue, after all….
Time To Taste The Novello
Tomorrow, November 11, for the Feast of Saint Martin, vintners seek the first taste of their year’s work to gauge how the new wine (or novello) is progressing.
Today’s Sicily Wine-making Report
This grape mosto may not look too exciting to you, but it is exciting for winemakers! Currently, mosto, or grape juice, is in the midst of the fermentation process. Wine making takes time and patience and practice. See the stainless steel “barrel” in the background? That’s where the magic is happening right now (in a…
Cook In Sicily At An Extraordinary Location
It’s hard to describe a day like today would have been because Chef Giuseppe Sciurca and Valeria Signorino do everything 120%. So when I ask them to plan something extraordinary, they come up with something like having a hands-on cooking experience outside under a tree steps from the ancient Greek temple at Himera. I mean,…
A Picnic In The Forest In Sicily
Today if we were in Sicily for our Stirring Sicily small-group food and wine tour, you would have delighted in a picnic in the forest. And this year, we would have remembered the wine opener so Bill wouldn’t have to use a tree to pop the cork! Your wine would taste wonderful paired with the…
Today We Would Have Eaten Two Breakfasts
If we were in Sicily… We would have started today with two breakfasts. The one with toast, eggs, and fresh fruit at your inn (On second thought, skip that one!), and then with this one, my favorite cannolo in the world coupled with your preferred coffee drink (Un caffè macchiato, perfavore.). This cannolo is like…
Shopping And Eating In Palermo’s Markets With A Local Guide
Shopping and eating in Palermo’s Il Capo and Vucciria markets led by our local guide Angelo is how we would have spent this morning, Day 1 of Stirring Sicily. Our focus of this week’s (I wish we were actually there) tour is Sicilian food culture, cooking, and wine. (Daydream along with me!) Here Angelo is…
The Vendemmia In Sicily
Currently throughout Sicily grape growers are measuring the sugar, acid, and tannin levels of their grapes in preparation for the annual vendemmia, or grape harvest. Up to now, wine-making has been about caring for the vines, pruning the growth, and ensuring that the fruit has received enough air, sunlight, and water for an abundant and…
Etna Wines Plus Excellent Company Equals A Memorable Evening
It’s hard to capture the sense of enthusiasm and interest that flowed through us all last evening during our Etna Wine Box with Guided Synchronous Online Tasting and Discussion. This photo only gives a glimpse into the more than two hours spent on a virtual visit to Europe’s largest, most active volcano with author Benjamin…