Tag: wine
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Saint Martin in Noto
Each province of Sicily celebrates San Martino a bit differently. In Noto, they eat both sweet and savory crispelle, such as the ones pictured, photographed by Niki Masino of GelsominoImports.com, along with cooked wine.
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These Barrels Have a Nose
November 11 is La Festa di San Martino, or Saint Martin’s Day. It marks the first tasting of the new wine, also known as “novello.” September marked the grape harvest, when the grapes are picked, cleaned, and macerated (Yes, it’s true, wine makers used to stomp on them with their feet…) to make juice that…
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Keep Your Eyes on Sicilian Wines
Starting on Friday, Oct. 21, the Sudest Wine Fest a Siracusa takes place in Ortigia. Within the charming setting of the Antico Mercato di Ortigia, cooking demos, street food offerings, theater presentations, jazz music performances will please attendees, and of course, wine tastings will take center stage. I can only hope that the spectacular wines…
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Savoring Sicily, Day 8: Friends Make Me Rich
I promised our guests that they’d meet friends along the way, and today, Day 8 of Savoring Sicily, we certainly did! My heart is so full after a day meeting old friends and new who hosted us in the most wonderful ways… Through song, food, and wine! I want to gush and gush! I’ll try…
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The Grapes of Sicilian Wine
The terraces and stone walls of Randazzo on Mount Etna’s north face make for a special environment to grow grapes from ancient vines. Grape varieties such as Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccino grow about a half a mile above sea level, where the salty sea winds meet fresh, crisp mountain air that converges with volcanic,…
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Sicily’s Wines: Taste for Yourself
In recent years, Sicily has attracted the interest of serious wine connoisseurs. And with good reason: its terroir offers rich, volcanic soil, many grape varieties, numerous microclimates, and multiple generations of vines. Combine that with a new generation of vintners, and that equates to fantastic wines. You may be familiar with Nero d’Avola, Marsala, Grillo,…
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Liberation Celebration
April 25 is Liberation Day, a national holiday in Italy. Liberation Day (No, definitely not libation, as the bottle of wine may make you think.) celebrates when in 1945 during World War II, Allied troops once and for all liberated the Italian peninsula and islands from Mussolini’s Italian Social Republic. When I saw this bottle…
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Our May Tour, Day 9: A Multi-sensory Experience
We’ll walk into the vines with the owner of Feudo Montoni vineyard on Day 9 of our Experience Sicily May 19-31 tour with Chef Melissa Muller. Fabio will explain to us his wine-making process, take us through the estate’s cantinas, and pair his different wine varietals with the food that we’ll be making with Chef…
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Wine Connection
Connecting people to their heritage in Sicily brings me great joy, and this weekend I was thrilled to be able to connect two sisters to Sicily, this time through wine. They explained that their last name is Aitala, and asked if I knew how they could purchase the Sicilian wine of the same name. Well,…