Sicily has been high on my hit list of places to visit for years. Luckily for me, last year the dream became a reality when I visited Etna, and even though this trip came quite soon after my wedding, it was a purely non-honeymoon, fact-finding trip, I can assure you.
Our first day on the island kicked off with a blind tasting of whites and reds presented by Marco de Grazia from Tenuta delle Terre Nere. He cast an imposing but friendly figure, and when his time came to speak, he stepped forward with tousled hair pushed back off his tanned face with reading glasses. We waited with bated breath as the glasses lowered onto his nose to see what this Etna oracle had to say, at which point he began to read (in English) from an old but well-loved book of his titled Scritti Vari di Enologica.
The text described how the diversity of Etna’s terroir, upturned over centuries, gives the wines from this location a very particular character. Reading this extract enabled de Grazia to paint a vivid portrait of not just how ancient Sicily is, but how its unique wine character vastly pre-dates any modern notion of serious Sicilian wine, and especially these days for white wine.
Of course, Sicily isn’t the only European island increasingly appreciated for its important dry whites these days. Together with Sardinia for vermentino and Santorini for assyrtiko, these three islands are proving a real tour de force for quality whites that are both weighty and refreshing, and in some cases, have a white Burgundian-esque ability to improve considerably with a bit of age.
Wines of Sardinia
Lying between Corsica and Sicily, Sardinia is Italian but when it comes to wine, it has a distinctly Spanish influence. The jury’s still out on whether the conquering Catalonians brought cannonau (garnacha) with them from Spain, or whether they took it back with them. Either way, it’s now the island’s staple red grape. Much like Sicily, the calibre of Sardinian whites seems to improve with every vintage, as long as it relies on its own native grape gifts, which are considerable.
The sun-loving vermentino is the island’s most widely planted grape and few people are immune to its floral charm and zesty freshness; no wonder it’s found down the length of Italy from Liguria to Sardinia. But look out for up-and-coming native white grapes from the island too; there are some interesting examples of nuragus around these days.
Wines of Santorini
Santorini is no stranger to sun, either. Just over 100km north of Crete, this bucolic Greek island sits in the Aegean Sea and produces feisty reds and vinsanto sweet wines, but the dry white made with assyrtiko is what stops people in their tracks. Like Sicily’s ancient wine origins, records of winemaking on Santorini date back impossibly far, to a volcanic eruption of 1653BC when a prehistoric city was buried and excavations of which have revealed signs of vine growing and winemaking.
To times more within our mental grasp (well, mine at least), assyrtiko survived phylloxera thanks to the island's high sand content, and today, although rain is seriously limited, the bush vines planted far apart seem to withstand everything Mother Nature throws at them. The result is assyrtiko that’s saline, crisp, frisky and forward or weighty and substantial (take your pick). It’s a grape capable of lees ageing and barrel ageing too, if managed sensitively of course. In short, Santorini assyrtiko has purity and precision running through its veins.
Wines of Sicily and Mount Etna
Back to Etna, now that the initial thrill and ‘discovery’ of nerello mascalese-based reds is well and truly established, the winemaking of carricante whites has, let’s say, become more attentive. With every lava layer that flows and cools, the soil increases in complexity, and as producers head higher and higher up the active volcano’s slopes (some of the vineyards here are now the highest in the world), we are the lucky ones benefitting from all their bravery, tasting just how well carricante is a conduit for all this soil diversity and unique terroir.
Bewitching white wines aside, these three islands do have something else in common: producer is crucial and still the first guarantee of quality, so shop well.
12 white wines from Sardinia, Sicily and Santorini to try
2022 Vassaltis Assyrtiko, Santorini, Greece
