Definition: Sicily 2

In the landscape of an island that is now a kind of "wine-growing Wild West", Etna is a somewhat isolated area. The oldest appellation in the region also has the greatest potential for fine, authentic and original wines.

Sicily is to Italy what Languedoc is to France: long confined to the mass production of mediocre wines, with the best products used to boost the juices of more northern appellations, they eventually rebelled, raised the bar and started working for themselves. Viticulture on the largest island in the Mediterranean is currently in a state of turmoil, leading to an identity crisis. Will it, like Languedoc, play the high-end card and try to align itself with prestigious Italian and French vineyards, or will it join the ranks of "New World wines" and continue to favour quantity over quality, standardised international wines over original wines with character?

Sicily is Italy's largest wine-producing region in terms of area, with around 140,000 hectares, or 17% (1999 figures) of Italy's total vineyard area, ahead of Puglia and Veneto. In the 1970s, at the peak of its production, this region produced 10 million hectolitres. (Riddle: knowing that nearly half of this volume was shipped by tanker to France, and that 75% of Sicilian production comes from white grape varieties, can you guess where these millions of hectolitres ended up...?). Today, depending on the year, between eight and nine million hectolitres are produced, still competing with Veneto and Puglia for first place in terms of volume.

In Sicily, few bottles are produced and only 2% have a controlled designation of origin. To "improve" the situation, Cabernet, Merlot, Syrah and Chardonnay were planted. Then it was realised that there were valuable indigenous grape varieties such as Nero d'Avola and Frappato for reds, and Inzolia and Grillo for whites. So a change of tack was made. In this regard, one date marks the realisation of Sicily's quality potential: in 1984, Duca di Salaparuta presented Duca Enrico, a Nero d'Avola "in purezza" that changed the image of the island's oenology and demonstrated that a great red wine could be produced in Sicily from a native grape variety. This period saw the emergence of ambitious ventures aimed at producing high-end wines capable of competing with any region. In terms of trends, it can be said that Sicily is currently moving towards more red grape varieties, bottling and controlled appellations. But this is only a trend, as figures from 1999 still show 77% of the area planted with white grapes (mainly Catarratto and Trebbiano). So, to simplify things greatly, we could say that the typical Sicilian wine is a white table wine. Even today, only 1/10 of production is bottled, and DOC (controlled designation of origin) wines still only account for 180,000 hectolitres, or 2% of the region's total volume! But things are changing, and the number of Sicilian appellations has risen from 9 to 18 over the last ten years. While in 1997, 24 Sicilian producers were present at Vinitaly – the Italian Vinexpo – four years later, in 2001, there were 110! Also new are the large Italian and foreign groups that are investing and buying hundreds of hectares of vineyards. The global wine boom has brought Tuscan and Venetian entrepreneurs who are already multimillionaires in bottles (Zonin, Giv, Santa Margherita), textile industrialists (Marzotto), financiers, and even showbiz personalities such as Depardieu and Carole Bouquet to Sicily. This modernisation has been accompanied by spectacular commercial successes, success stories that are emblematic of today's Sicilian wine industry, such as Donnafugata. Its rise began 20 years ago, with 80 hectares belonging to one of the great families of Marsala. Thanks to its dynamism and keen sense of communication, the estate (whose wines bear the names of locations from Tomasi di Lampedusa's famous novel, The Leopard) now vinifies grapes from 170 hectares, produces 1.6 million bottles, exports to 26 countries and has a turnover of around €7.2 million! Already following in its footsteps is Planeta, the new star, which in five or six years has reached one million bottles, the best of which, such as Santa Cecilia – also a 100% Nero d'Avola – sell for over £15 in Italian wine shops. And others are following suit.

An original vineyard around Europe's largest volcano:

Within this Sicilian panorama, we are interested in the two extreme points of the island, in wines that are, if not marginal, at least out of the limelight: the pioneering work of Marco De Bartoli, discussed in the following article, and the wines of the east coast, particularly those of the Etna appellation. Etna is the highest active volcano in Europe: 3,345 metres above the nearby sea level, 30 km in diameter and with a perimeter of 200 km at its base, a majestic silhouette whose often snow-capped summit is adorned with a plume of white smoke that dissipates into the azure Mediterranean sky. A myth, a presence, sometimes disturbing, but a source of fertility. On the slopes of this imposing cone, the vines are planted at altitudes of between 450 and 1,000 metres on sandy soils made up of ash or the disintegration of lava from successive eruptions. There, among chestnut trees, broom and cherry trees, a vineyard has been built up over the years on small terraces contained by low walls of volcanic stone, also descended from the giant's mouth. Its establishment dates back to ancient times, and until the end of the 19th century it remained the island's main wine-producing area. Since 1968, a crescent-shaped outline has marked the boundaries of Sicily's oldest appellation contrôlée. The unique soil composition of these deep volcanic sands, rich in mineral salts, naturally gives the vineyard a unique character. This originality is combined with a climate characterised by cold winters that cover the terraces with snow, and African summers that see the sirocco wind lick the slopes of the volcano. Perhaps the most decisive climatic feature is the temperature range between day and night, which frequently reaches 30 degrees, resulting in slow ripening that ends more than a month after that of other regions of Sicily. Add to this the humid maritime influence, accentuated by fairly frequent easterly winds, and you will have an idea of the elements that make up this unique terroir. However, it is necessary to consider several factors, such as the slopes, altitude and age of the volcanic deposits. Despite this idyllic setting, from which you can see the beautiful town of Taormina below, Etna's wine industry has lost two-thirds of its vineyard area over the last forty years, reducing it to 5,500 hectares planted today, and a volume of DOC wines which, still using only part of this potential, stands at around 9,000 hectolitres, including 1,500 of white wine, according to official statements. Considering that around 1890 the vineyards covered 50,000 hectares and produced one million hectolitres, it is an understatement to say that the Etna vineyard is in danger. The reasons for this decline are: the replacement of lower-lying crops with citrus fruits, insufficient yields in the higher areas, labour costs, the impossibility of mechanisation, and competition from vineyards on the plains with their enormous yields. Before phylloxera, the area had more than 40 grape varieties, but today there are only three or four indigenous varieties, which further weakens this mountain vineyard. Nerello Mascalese, the main grape variety, is traditionally planted 1m x 1m apart, with around 8,000 vines per hectare, and trained using the goblet method. Pruned short, and under the conditions of Etna, it rarely exceeds 50 hectolitres/ha, whereas in some plains on the other side of the island, its vigour when trained on wires leads it to produce four to five times more. However, there are now only just over 200 hectares of Nerello left in the Etna DOC, along with around 50 hectares of its cousin Nerello Capuccio and a few plots of Alicante. The traditional white grape variety of the area is Carricante, which produces wines with pronounced acidity and great ageing potential, sometimes compared to certain Chablis wines.

The Etna vineyard is typical of those entities for which the transition from viticulture intended for family and local consumption to market viticulture has been fatal, or almost so. We are not talking about this out of nostalgia for a bygone era, but because there is a renewed interest, fuelled by the intelligence of those who have understood that tomorrow, instead of trying to compete with the wineries of the New World, other cards will have to be played. Fortunately, the Benanti, Bonaccorsi, Nicolosi and Scammacca families who produce Etna wines today are long-established families, attached to the land of their "Mongibello", as the volcano, both feared and loved, is known here. They are also passionate young oenologists such as Salvo Foti, a perfect connoisseur of the history of the vineyard and defender of endangered grape varieties such as Minnella and Vesparola, to whom we owe much of our information. Together, they are defending the future of this extraordinary vineyard, and Foti has even entrusted a nurseryman in Haute-Saône with Nerello grafts so that he can propagate them under the right conditions.

Like a wind of rebirth:

Proof of Etna's revival is the recent establishment of a company such as Cottanera, which aims to produce both international wines with grape varieties such as Syrah and Merlot, and more original wines from Mondeuse and local grape varieties Nerello Mascalese and Nero d'Avola. Unfortunately, we were only able to taste two of the first wines released in spring 2001, so we will wait a little longer before passing judgement on this estate, whose dynamism is undoubtedly a very positive stimulus for the area. Murgo is one of the largest companies in the area. It owns 25 hectares, buys grapes and produces nearly 200,000 bottles, including a spumante and a white Etna made from 70% Carricante and 30% Catarratto. At Benanti, where experiments with grape varieties have been underway since 1988, there are plots on different slopes, and efforts are being made to implement a policy of terroirs and crus, including the renowned Rovitello and Serra della Contessa, which should become great wines if they can shed their overly flashy technological trappings. The research has also led to the (courageous) bottling of a series of local single varietals, as well as Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. Above all, the estate produces an Etna bianco superiore, Pietramarina, from 80-year-old Carricante vines, some of which are ungrafted, located at an altitude of 950 metres. In favourable vintages, this wine can rival the very best whites, provided you wait a few years for it to develop.

Carlo and Maria Nicolosi, both oenotechnicians – he teaches oenology at the University of Catania – are the proud owners of the magnificent Barone di Villagrande estate in Milo. From the opulent terraces in the heart of the appellation, which have been organically farmed since 1989, they produce whites of exceptional quality. They also produce an IGT red, Sciara, made from 35-year-old Merlot vines, which is full of charm and demonstrates that when foreign grape varieties have been integrated for a long time, they can produce wines that are marked by the terroir. A sign of the times, Alice Bonaccorsi, already heir to a beautiful estate in Piedimonte Etneo on the eastern slope, which produces Val Cerasa, has just bought, with her husband Rosario Pappalardo, an estate -Vigna della Pietra - near Randazzo, on the northern slope, with a cellar featuring vats carved out of lava rock and terraces entwined with very old vines swept by cold but dry north winds. The first vinifications (in stainless steel vats) suggest fine, delicate red wines with great aromatic elegance.

Even more daring is the investment by Frank Cornelissen, a Belgian wine importer who fell madly in love with Etna, bought some vines and a horse to cultivate them with absolute respect for nature, lets the vines climb up the branches of cherry trees and vinifies in terracotta jars buried in volcanic sand. The results are astonishingly pure experimental wines that we will be hearing a lot more about! Clearly, there are signs of a renaissance around the volcano. There are even rumours that some cowboys from the western plains are beginning to prowl the slopes of the volcano and would like to add an Etna DOC to their catalogue, alongside Syrah and Chardonnay. How symbolic!

For our part, after this initial, necessarily superficial assessment, we are convinced of the great quality potential of this vineyard. If the fine estates on the slopes of Etna were to lose some of their currently excessive faith in oenological techniques and give more prominence to their exceptional terroir, their wines could reach heights comparable to those of their splendid Mongibello, propelling Sicily into the realm of wines with a unique character that no California could ever imitate.