“To have seen Italy without having seen Sicily is not to have seen Italy at all, for Sicily is the clue to everything.” - Goethe

Sicily is rapidly becoming one of Italy’s top food and wine destinations. And it’s not only because of The White Lotus, whose season 2, set at The Four Seasons in Taormina, has driven a big spike in tourism since it aired last October. Visitors have been flocking to the island for decades to partake in exquisite cuisine and top-notch wine while hobnobbing with locals and taking in the diverse architecture and sweeping mountain and seaside views.

Sicily’s gastronomic and wine culture is rich in ancient flavors, a reflection of the optimal weather conditions, varied geography, and multi-cultural heritage of its people, descendants of the many societies that came and went over thousands of years.

The island’s centrally located position in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, between Tunisia in the southwest and the Italian Peninsula to the north, has made it the stomping grounds for many nations over thousands of years. Before becoming a part of Italy in 1860, Sicily was ruled by Greeks, Phoenicians, Arabs, Normans, and more. Today, its culture is a unique mosaic of modern Italian influences alongside those inherited from various conquerors long ago.

Poor Yet Rich

Nowhere in the world has a cuisine been so poor and so rich simultaneously. Sicily’s mineral-laden soils, rolling hills, warm Mediterranean climate, and cool sea breezes provide a near-perfect environment for produce, livestock, and seafood to thrive. The result is fresh and inexpensive, i.e., “poor” ingredients. However, it is the imagination of the Sicilian people that has made the cuisine plentiful and diverse, or “rich.”

The Sicilian people have invented a unique cuisine that blends Italian ingredients like tomatoes, eggplant, and olives with products inherited from faraway lands. Some of these items, now staples in Sicilian food, include prickly pears from Mount Etna, almonds from Avola, pistachios of Bronte, lentils of Ustica, and capers of Pantelleria. Even ginger root has been growing in Sicily for the past ten years.

Ancient Grapes

And then there is wine—and there is a lot of it. The Greeks, who ruled the island in the 8th century B.C., were the first to plant grapevines, and ever since, Sicily’s climate has ensured that healthy grapes grow easily.

However, the region’s suitability for abundant wine production has been both a blessing and a curse. During the advent of the Industrial Age in the late 19th century, production shifted towards mass-produced wines from high-yielding international grape varieties like Cabernet and Chardonnay. As a result, Sicily’s wine industry developed a reputation for favoring quantity over quality. By the 1990s, as the wine-drinking market demanded better wines, Sicily’s wine had lost its value. Suffering great economic consequences, it was only a matter of time before wine growers and producers began returning to ancient grape varieties, reducing yields, and making better wines.

Today, time-honored winegrowing traditions play an essential role in Sicily, and native grapes, of which there are nearly 50, are firmly rooted in the region’s viticulture. After years of research with international varieties, Sicilian researchers and winemakers recognize that, while these noble grapes can create distinctive wines, the island’s native grape varieties shine a little more brightly in the Mediterranean landscape.

Sicily’s most commonly grown native white grape varieties include Grillo, Inzolia, and Catarratto. For reds, it is Nero d’Avola, with Nerello Mascalese, Perricone, and Frappato following closely behind. These grapes are now producing some of Italy’s most exciting wines.

Take Me Back to Sicily!

Recently, while dreaming of the meals I savored in Sicily last October, I prepared a delicious “Sicilian style” dinner of sautéed rock shrimp and filets of sea bass, served with tomato-sauced pasta.

But this was not your typical Italian tomato sauce. Yes, I used olive oil, onions, and garlic, but I also added spices not often seen in other parts of Italy, yet common in Sicily: cumin, turmeric, allspice, and ground and fresh ginger.

Sicily’a open-air markets are filled with spice stands that sell ingredients typically used in the cuisine of distant lands to the east of Europe. The little bag of turmeric I purchased for one euro in Palermo was now seasoning a sauce in New York City!

With the fish and pasta I paired a Terre di Giurfo Belsito Frappato I had brought home from the winery. Terre di Giurfo (blue dot on map) produces fine Sicilia DOC wines from various native grapes, including Frappato, Nero d’Avola, Grillo, and Nerello Mascalese. Their Frappato comes from the Vittoria DOC appellation of southeast Sicily where most of this grape variety is grown.

Frappato is a light-bodied red grape that is fast becoming a favorite of wine lovers due to its freshness. It is often blended with the more deeply-colored and structured Nero d’Avola to make interesting blends, such as Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG wines.

Frappato’s ruby red wines offer fragrant red cherry and spice aromas with fresh fruit flavors that linger on the palate. However, it is the wines’ delicate tannins and low alcohol levels (12 to 13% ABV) that infuse them with a light and ethereal quality—perfect for sipping all night long.

**the Terre di Giurfo Frappato label used in the U.S. Market.**

Terre di Giurfo’s Frappato Belsito is light on its feet, with a juiciness that goes down easily, refreshing the palate between every bite of food. The cherry-like fruitiness of the wine and subtly earthy undertones went particularly well with the fish’s salinity and the tomato sauce’s slight spiciness.

Note: Sicilia DOC is the appellation that covers all of Sicily, providing brand recognition of Sicily as a wine region and reflecting Sicily’s long viticultural history, diverse grape varieties and wine styles, and wide use of organic farming methods. The Tutela Vini Sicilia DOC Consortium protects, promotes, and enhances Sicilian DOC wine by raising quality standards, preserving the island’s winemaking heritage, and increasing consumer and trade education. Additionally, Sicily has 23 other, more localized DOCs such as the above wine, a Vittoria DOC, and 1 DOCG, Cerasuolo di Vittoria.