A Wine Lover's Look at the Mountain Vineyards of Sicilia
By Kent Campbell

If you're hosting a wine tasting party, your guests will enjoy the wines more when you can offer a little background on the winery. As you pour wines, sharing stories of the wineries can lead to a more distinctive taste as your guests can also picture where a wine originated. This article examines the wine producing region of Sicily and the mountain vineyards, including Valle dell'Acate and Azienda Agricola Graci, producers of the perfect wines to complement any wine tasting party.

Sicily

Some say Sicilians have less Italian blood in their veins than the Phoenician, Green, Arabic, Norman, Spanish, or French because its location at the crossroads between Europe and Africa caused many different cultures to leave their trace on this beautiful largest island in the Mediterranean. The Greek cities of Sicily flourished during the 6th and 5th Centuries BC and their ruins are some of the most impressive outside of Greece, especially the Valley of the Temples near Agrigento. Nature also has its achievements in Sicilia, its magnificent beaches, remote hill towns and plains, its mountain ranges, and spectacular Mount Etna, one of the three active volcanoes rendering the land immensely fertile.

The Vineyards Of Sicily

The island of Sicily is home to more vineyards than any other region. The western province of Trapani alone produces more wine than the entire regions of Toscana or Piemonte, although winemakers ship much of this wine north for use as blending wine or for distillation into industrial alcohol. Marsala makes up most of the fine wine produced here along with many dry white and red wines from Etna vineyards whose vines drape over the lower slopes of the volcano showing notable class. Italian wine clubs often feature Sicily Marsalas in addition to Nero d'Avola, Nerello Mascalese, and Perricone.

Valle dell'Acate

Jacono Ricca and Ferreri del'Anguilla, both from ancient winemaking families in eastern Siciliy, started the Valle dell'Acate winery on the Bidini Estate in the province of Ragusa in 1981. Covering over 100 hectares of wine grapes, Valle dell'Acate grows the native Nero d'Avola, Frappato, and Insolia, along with the international varieties Chardonnay and Syrah. This large property lies between the towns of Acate and Vittoria on steep hills above the Dirillo River. Producer of wines called 'impeccable' by Italian wine clubs and the wine guide Gambero Rosso, the jewel of the estate is Nero d'Avola, Sicily's noble red grape blended with aromatic Frappato in the Cerasuolo di Vittoria wine and with Syrah in the Tane.

Azienda Agricola Graci

Tasting the wines from this tiny winery that produces only 1,000 cases is a privilege shared by very few, probably more foreigners and members of Italian wine clubs than native Sicilians. In 2004, Alberto Aiello Graci founded the winery located on Mount Etna, the largest active volcano in Europe, which is 3.329 meters above sea level (10.922 feet), its fiery halo visible from great distances. The Graci estate is located on the northern slope of the mountain at Passopisciaro, where viticulture goes back thousands of years. Alberto Graci farms three vineyards at various altitudes.

With many of the winery's vines planted over 100 years ago on their own roots instead of root stock, Azienda Agricola Graci farms with no extraneous materials whatsoever, not even what might be approved by organic farming regulations. These extraordinary wines are all pure extractions of this mountain and its volcanic power that has awed ancient people and modern witnesses alike.

Whether you belong to loyal Italian wine clubs who regularly feature these wines or just buy a bottle from your local wine shop, you are sure to enjoy the wines of Sicily a little bit more now that you know some of the fascinating history of these vineyards.

Kent Campbell is an author for the popular wine of the month club, Celebrations Wine Club. Celebrations Wine Club is one of the few wine clubs offering the wines of California and Italy.

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