Tag: wine
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Sicilian Wines Only in Sicily, Please
Cin cin! Look at it. Smell it. Taste it. Enjoy it! Here’s a glimpse at a recent wine tasting I did in Menfi at Mandrarossa Winery. I enjoyed these wines immensely. Sicily is a major grape growing region with many different grape varieties you’ve probably never heard of. These presented here are five grapes for…
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Day 4 of 16 Days of Sicily | Wines, Vines, and Volcanoes
Sicily is teeming with grapes (and at least three active volcanoes), so I implore you, open your mind and heart to wines you haven’t heard of, and you will be so happy that you did. Nero d’Avola, Frappato, Perricone, Nerello Cappuccio, Nerello Mascalese (and these are just the reds!), (now for some white) Catarratto, Carricante,…
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Images Of Spring In Sicily: Trapani Vineyard
Spring vines in Trapani Province
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Crispelle For San Martino
November 11 is La Festa di San Martino, Saint Martin’s Day. Each province in Sicily celebrates differently. In the town of Chiaramonte Gulfi (Ragusa Province), citizens eat sweet and savory crispelle, like these made with fennel seeds, pictured, together with cooked wine. Importantly, the Feast of San Martino marks when wine makers taste the novello,…
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52 Reasons to Love Sicily | #14. Sublime Wine
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…
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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.…
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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.
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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…
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The Abundance Of Mount Etna In Sicily
When you walk among the vines at a vineyard like Benanti Viticoltori with our friends at Etna Wine School on the slopes of Mount Etna, you see for yourself what those volcanic soils I mentioned yesterday produce. In this case, outstanding grapes for wine-making. But not only! The Etna region is known for its pistachios,…