by Robin Garr | Aug. 16, 2024

Over the years, Sicilian wine has suffered under a reputation for being, well, less than great. But that view is changing, with good reason.

Sicilian wine expert and Scotland-based Sicilian wine merchant Laura Raimondi gives us a concise explanation on her La Sicilyana web page, which is loaded with information about Sicilian wine.

Sicily’s poor reputation can be attributed to the very condition that makes it an ideal wine-growing region, Raimondi wrote in a January 2023 article, The Ultimate Guide to Sicilian Wine.

“Given the conditions present in Sicily that lend themselves so naturally to viticultural pursuits, it is somewhat ironic that Sicily was failing in its wine making ventures up until the end of the 20th Century,” she wrote.

“Because Sicilian vine growers found it so easy to produce and harvest their vineyards the temptation to mass-produce wine was just too strong.”

Thanks in part to subsidies and incentives by the Sicilian government during much of the previous century, she wrote, “the quantity of wine produced in the region went up significantly, whilst the quality (as it so often does) went down. As the quality of the wine weakened so did consumer confidence and before long, Sicily started to garner a reputation for low-quality, wishy-washy wine.”

Then came the good news: With the new century came a new wave of Sicilian winemakers, who recognized the value of the country’s ancient wine-making heritage, and the more than 70 indigenous grape varieties that grow there. By returning to those roots and rediscovering traditional growing techniques, the quality of Sicilian wines has skyrocketed.

Mount Etna’s February 2021 eruption seen from Naval Air Station Signorella, abour 40 kilometers south of Etna. (Photo from NAS Signorella Facebook page.)

One good place to discover the real quality of Sicilian wine is Mount Etna, the 11,000-foot-tall active volcano that dominates Sicily’s northeastern corner, near where the toe of the Italian boot seems poised to kick the Sicilian football.

“As long as humans have lived and farmed in proximity to Mount Etna, they’ve grown grapes in the foothills and slopes of this still quite active volcano,” The New York Times wine columnist Eric Asimov wrote in Your Next Lesson: Etna Rosso, on Jan. 28, 2016. (Gift article, no paywall.)

“But as a region making fine, distinctive wines coveted by the rest of the world,” Asimov added, “Etna is most definitely new. … Now the world understands that Etna can produce fresh, energetic reds that are pure, elegant, subtle and vivacious. ”

Based on my relatively narrow sample, so far – quality Etna reds aren’t cheap – Asimov is right on target. This week’s featured wine, Tenuta di Fessina “Erse” Etna Rosso, adds another data point.

“Etna Rosso, from a blend of Nerello Cappuccio and Nerello Mascalese, is the photograph of the traditional Etna vineyard, the most fragrant Etna DOC of Fessina, dedicated to the Greek goddess of dew,” the winery declares in some of the most poetic marketing-speak I’ve encountered yet.

Erse, the call of the sunrise and the dew at dawn.
“The blue of the drops of the dew.”
The blue of the sky of Etna.

Because this is a $30 local purchase for me, priced in the middle $20s on average in the U.S., I have to limit my full tasting report to our paid-tier subscribers, whose subscriptions help me cover the cost of these special wines.

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