THE WORLD OF SICILIAN WINE
FRONTISPIECE.
Map of Sicily by Robert Morden and William Berry from 1680. Reproduced in L’Isola A Tre Punte: Maps of Sicily from the La Gumina Collection (XVI-XIX Century), edited by Enrico Iachello (Catania: La Gumina/Sanfilippo Editore, 1999), 151.
THE WORLD
OF SICILIAN WINE
Bill Nesto, MW, and Frances Di Savino
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
BerkeleyLos AngelesLondon
The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the General Endowment Fund of the University of California Press Foundation.
University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu.
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2013 by William R. Nesto and Frances Di Savino
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nesto, Bill, 1951–
The world of Sicilian wine / Bill Nesto and Frances Di Savino.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-520-26618-6 (cloth : alk. paper)
eISBN 978-0-520-95507-3
1. Wine and wine making—Italy—Sicily. 2. Wine and wine making—Italy—Sicily—History. 3. Sicily (Italy) I. Di Savino, Frances, 1960– II. Title.
TP559.18N47 2013
663’.2009458—dc23
2012026490
Manufactured in the United States of America
22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R 2002) (Permanence of Paper).
To our fathers and mothers,
R. William and Antoinette Nesto
&
Sabino and Geraldine Di Savino,
we dedicate this work,
our labor of love
Almost a year . . . a year in Sicily . . .
a year that coursed so quickly . . .
And what I now inscribe is but a trace,
a vestige of the visions shared when we
were wanderers in Sicily: for me,
you made each pilgrim path a joyous journey.
Ovid, Ex ponto 2.10 (“My Eyes,” translation by Allen Mandelbaum in Ovid in Sicily)
CONTENTS
List of Maps
Acknowledgments
Preface
1. The Origins of Sicilian Wine and Culture
2. The Lost Opportunity: 1775 to 1950
3. The Modern Sicilian Wine Industry
4. Perpetual Wine
5. The Geography of Sicily
6. Vine Varieties
7. Viticulture in Sicily
8. Enology in Sicily
9. At the Heart of Sicily
10. Understanding Sicilian Wine by Place: The Three Valleys
11. Val di Mazara
12. Val di Noto
13. Val Demone
14. The Garden-Vineyard
Afterword
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
MAPS
1. Wine areas of Sicily’s three valleys
2. Val di Mazara—West
3. Val di Mazara—East
4. Val di Noto
5. Val Demone
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We acknowledge and thank all of the Sicilians who have helped us in our research and travels. We are grateful to the Istituto Regionale Vini e Oli di Sicilia (IRVOS) and its director general, Dr. Dario Cartabellotta. The Region of Sicily’s dedicated team of enologists, agronomists, and other experts working in the field from Marsala to Mount Etna provided us with valuable insights and information. We also express our appreciation to Blake Edgar, Dore Brown, and Kate Marshall of University of California Press and to our copy editor Juliana Froggatt for their wise guidance and professionalism. To our mothers, Anne Sirugo Nesto and Geri Saporito Di Savino, and our cherished family and friends, we shall forever be grateful for your love and encouragement. Finally, we acknowledge and express our profound respect for the countless Sicilians—past, present, and future—who have tended their vines and sacrificed so very much for their magnificent land. It has been an honor to tell their story.
Grazii da nostri cori pri sempri.
PREFACE
Frances Di Savino, my wife, and I explored the island of Sicily for two weeks in June of 2008. I was there to research an article about Sicilian wine. Fran was with me because we do almost everything together, and we both love Italy. I say almost everything since the hand that writes this preface is my own. But she is at my side. This is our introduction to our book.
We were astounded by the enthusiasm of the Sicilians we met. Visits to vineyards and wineries and sips of wine inevitably began with, ended with, and were blended into visits to historical sites and breathtaking panoramas and tastes of the vibrant flavors of produce and cuisine. We came back to Boston knowing that there was a compelling story to tell, a book to be written, and many returns to Sicily in the near future.
The book was also in our genes. Fran and I are both 100 percent southern Italian by ancestry. I am 50 percent Sicilian. My ancestors on my mother’s side came to New York from Ragusa. Fran’s ancestry comes from elsewhere down the boot. She feels Sicilian, though. We played with the possibility that her Saporito ancestors came to Campania by way of Sicily. In fact, Saporitos have thrived on the island since the thirteenth century.
Fran’s avid interest in Latin and Greek in high school led her to make her first pilgrimage to Italy with her schoolmates and her Latin teacher. She returned to Florence to study Medieval and Renaissance history and art. Of course, she became fluent in Italian. She speaks Italian so well that Italians ask her where she comes from in Italy.
After being a fine arts painter, I became interested in food and then wine and eventually became a sommelier, wine journalist, and Master of Wine. I gravitated to Italian wine because I felt more at home in Italy than in France, my other favorite wine destination.