Sicily Flashcards
Sicily
Largest area under vines in Italy, spread widely around the island. Own quality designation. Symbol Q appears on label, denotes wine of good quality at any level. Indigenous varieties, Nero d’Avola common or blends with international varieties. Much bulk wine production. Better quality from the interior mountains with cooler climate. A few estates are making very high quality wines. Cataratto, Grillo and Inzolia are used for fortified Marsala and blended dry whites.
Alcamo DOC
Northwest Sicily, west of Palermo. Centred on the town of Trapani. Trapani’s vineyards are the most important extensive in Italy. White, red and rose produced but predominately white from Cataratto.
Cerasuolo DOCG
Promoted to DOCG in 2005. Long- lived red produced from the Frapatto grape in the Ragusa province of Sicily.
Passito di Pantelleria DOC
Small island of Pantelleria near North Africa. Luscious dessert wine produced from Moscato grapes. Similar to flavours as Rutherglen Muscat, with a lighter palate.
Pantelleria
Volcanic island at the extreme southern limit of Italy and closer in fact to Cape Bon in tunisia than to the southern coast of sicily, to which it belongs administratively. Moscato di Pantelleria is one of Italy’s finest dessert wines, made from the zibibbo (muscat of alexandria). The wine has enjoyed a certain reputation since the 1880s, when the marsala house of Rallo began to market it. The viticulture of the island is unusual: vines are gobelet trained but buried in a hole (called a ‘conca’ by local growers) and vineyards surrounded by stone walls built from volcanic black rock to prevent dehydration by the hot scirocco winds that sweep across the island. Moscato di Pantelleria comes in two different versions. The first is the regular Moscato, with at least 11% alcohol level and 68 g/l of residual sugar, although many of the better producers raisin the grapes for 10 to 12 days to achieve a higher total alcohol level and a greater quantity of residual sugar (see dried-grape wines). The second version is lusher and richer and is true dessert style, which made the wine’s reputation. This Passito di Pantelleria must have at least 14% alcohol and 100 g/l residual sugar, although a current trend is to seek a more decadently sweet style, raisining the grapes for up to 30 days and arriving at close to 140 g/l of residual sugar. This search for power can come at a cost: the Moscato perfumes tend to be destroyed by the very high level of volatile acidity that may result from prolonged drying under the hot sun. Both the Moscato and the Passito can come with the suffix ‘liquoroso’ indicating the addition of ethyl alcohol, which arrests the alcoholic fermentation while leaving a substantial amount of unfermented sugar in the wine. They may be additionally labelled Vino Dolce Naturale, the Italian equivalent of vin doux naturel, but rarely achieve the complexity of the unfortified versions. And changes in the production rules in the early 2010s created a new category of dry white wines labelled as Pantelleria Bianco as well as sparkling wines. After a period of neglect and decline, Moscato di Pantelleria continues to experience a period of revived popularity and recognition in Italy, with an undeniable increase in overall quality driven mainly by ambitious small-scale producers, notably Marco de Bartoli and biodynamic avantguardist Salvatore Ferrandes. French actress Carole Bouquet’s Sangue D’Oro estate has also played a part in shining a spotlight on one of Italy’s greatest sweet wines.
Sardinia
Known as Sardegna in Italian (the Italian adjective is Sardo), Mediterranean island 200 km/125 miles off the coast of Italy at its nearest point, governed by carthage before conquest by Ancient rome, and subsequently by Byzantines, Arabs, and Catalans. (See map under italy.) Sardinia became an integral part of Italy only in 1726, when it was ceded to the House of Savoy. Historically, linguistically, and culturally, as well as geographically, the island seems detached from the mainstream of Italian civilization, and it is no surprise that at least two of its significant grape varieties—cannonau (garnacha) and Carignano (carignan), also known as bovale Grande—are of Spanish origin. Vines in any case play only a small part in a total agricultural economy in which much of the land is dedicated to the grazing of animals—sheep in particular—for milk and meat. Although the total area under vines and the total production of wine underwent a significant increase in the post-war period, due to the wholesale replacement of its low-yielding bush vines with high-yielding tendone and wire-trained vineyards aided by lavish subsidies both from Rome and from the regional government, the result has not been a self-sustaining wine industry. As markets for Sardinian wines contracted and the flow of public funds to co-operative wineries dwindled to a trickle, the total vineyard surface decreased from a high of 70,000 to under 19,000 ha/47,000 acres in 2010. This dramatic contraction, however, has helped Sardinia’s slow but certain transition from quantity to quality producer: of a total of 510,000 hl of wine produced in 2010, more than 330,000 hl qualified as doc and over 80,000 hl of igt, while basic bulk wine represented a mere 15% of the total. Little has been done within the DOCs to match individual vine varieties to proper soils and climates. The production zones of the most popular varieties—Vermentino and Cannonau—have been extended to include the entire surface of the island. Four smaller subzones have been created for Cannonau: Capo Ferrato, Jerzu (the smallest), Oliena, and Classico (comprising the provinces of Nuoro and Ogliastra and wines declared as such need to be at least 95% Cannonau compared to 85% in the other subzones), but they are still too large to represent a faithful expression of a specific terroir. With a maximum yield per ha of 11 tonnes (9 tonnes for the Classico zone) for Cannonau and an absurdly generous 16 tonnes for Vermentino, it is only logical that most quality-oriented producers turn their backs on the official DOCs, preferring the lowly IGT, which also has the benefit of less bureaucracy. The Arborea DOC, approved in 1987 and geared solely to producing enormous volumes of sangiovese and trebbiano in a zone of commercial fruit cultivation, established 135 hl/ha as its official maximum permitted yield, and has not been a commercial success. The existence of four different types of wine—dry, sweet, a liquoroso, or higher-alcohol, dry wine, and a liquoroso sweet wine—in many of the DOCs (Malvasia di Cagliari, Monica di Cagliari, Giro di Cagliari, Nasco di Cagliari, Cannonau di Sardegna) may seem confusing but at least reflects some of the island’s traditional and highly original wine styles. If the overall picture is far from encouraging, small quantities of good wines do exist and suggest that Sardinia’s soil and climate have potential. Vernaccia di Oristano, although produced in dwindling quantities, can be a good approximation of a dry sherry with a clean and bitter finish, and the hard-to-find legendary Malvasia di Bosa justly enjoys a certain reputation as a dessert wine. Refreshing bottles of Vermentino di Gallura, produced in the island’s north, do exist, though hardly in sufficient quantity to merit the wine’s promotion to DOCG status in 1996, even though it was accompanied by the sensible lowering of yields to 10 tonnes/ha. An occasional good bottle of Nuragus di Cagliari only underlines the absurdity of allowing such high yields. Carignano del Sulcis has been responsible for some of the island’s best wines, especially those from the co-operative in Santadi, Argiolas, and Barrua, a joint venture between Santadi and the Incisa family of sassicaia set up by winemaker Giacomo Tachis. In the province of Alghero the giant Sella e Mosca has begun putting its energy into re-evaluating the local white torbato while also producing fine, long-lived Cabernet Sauvignon. But the real custodians of Sardinia’s original wine styles and cultivation methods are several small producers who, following organic or biodynamic methods while tending old bush vines, succeed in turning out wines that truly reflect their origin. Prime examples include Dettori in Sennori, Panevino in Nurri, Giovanni Battista Columbu in Bosa, and Contini in Oristano. These mavericks demonstrate the versatility and potential that Sardinia has in spades, but is frustratingly slow to develop.
Nero d’ Avola
The characteristic red grape variety of southern Siciliy, also known as Calabrese, suggesting origins in Calabria on the mainland. The 2010 Italian vine census cited 16,595 ha/40,990 acres of ‘Calabrese’, still the island’s most planted red wine grape. Producers on the island value the body, deep colour, and sweet-cherry fruit which Nero d’Avola can bring to a blend. varietal Nero d’Avola responds well to barrel maturation. Like Syrah, Nero d’Avola requires a good site, warmth, and low vine training to succeed. Avola itself is in the southern part of the province of Siracusa, and nearby Pachino, on the extreme south eastern tip of the island, is particularly reputed for the quality of its Nero d’Avola grapes.
Frappato
Increasingly celebrated Sicilian red grape variety, which can add fruit and floral freshness to nero d’avola and nerello Mascalese in the south east of the island, notably Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOC. Probably a descendant of ciliegiolo, it wasgrown on a total of 752 ha/1,857 acres in 2010.
Inzolia
Sometimes spelt Insolia, white grape variety grown mainly in Sicily and to a much more limited extent in Tuscany, where it is known as Ansonica Bianca, under which name the 2010 vine census lists an Italian total of 6,132 ha/15,050 acres. Its genetic roots seem to be in western Sicily where it was valued as a relatively aromatic ingredient, with Grillo, in top-quality marsala. Today it is more often encountered as a varietal, or blended with the much more common catarratto, in dry white table wines. The best examples show a certain nuttiness, the worst could do with more acid and more flavour.
Grillo
Sicilian white grape variety once used as the base for the best marsala. Grown on bush vines, it produced potent, full-bodied base wines that were supplemented by a proportion of the more aromatic inzolia. dna profiling established that Grillo is a natural cross of Sicily’s Catarratto with Muscat of Alexandria. At its best, it gives full-bodied wines of real interest, although they lack the aromatic intensity that has made Inzolia’s transformation from fortified to dry white wine variety so much easier. Plantings have grown substantially. Virtually all of Italy’s 6,294 ha/15,553 acres in 2010 were in Sicily, although the Rossese Bianco of Liguria has been shown to be identical to Grillo.
Sicilia: General
Traditionally only known for Marsala but modernisation in viticulture, winemaking and marketing.
Sicilia: Climate and Weather
Mediterranean climate w hot & dry summers and mild & wet winters. Low rainfall
Sicilia: Topography and Soils
Mostly hilly or mountainous w slopes up to 900m hi made of poor soils. Most vineyards are near the coast.
Sicilia: Viticulture and Winemaking
1960-80s: concentration on quantity meant the traditional gobelet was replaced with more productive wire- trained or tendone systems.
Guyot is now the large majority with some bush vines and tendone remaining. Move to mechanisation
Modernisation in winemaking with refrigeration for better temperature control at fermentation. Chaptalisation is
not permitted as in the rest of Italy.
Sicilia: Calabrese aka Nero d’ Avola (13% of total plantings)
Performs in hot & steamy climates, esp. around Noto
Sweet tannins, plum or peppery flavours (//New World
Shiraz)