The island of Sicily is among the most sedictive wine regions in the world.

It’s a green and vibrant land of light and sun, covered with grape vines, olive trees and citrus groves, flowers and aggressive mountains including rumbling Mt. Etna. Sicily, simply, is a place where everything seems to grow.

Its desirable location off the toe of Italy made it a natural for marauding nations to conquer. Greek, Roman, Arab, Norman, Byzantine and Moorish influences are everywhere – in majestic ruins, cathedrals, architecture, food and vineyards that date back to the Greek invasion in the 8th century BC.

At 25,706 square kilometers, Sicily is Italy’s largest wine region and has over 150,000 hectares of vines. Only nearby Apulia makes more wine because Sicilian winemakers’ pursuit of quality over the last decade has meant reduced crop sizes.

The 2008 edition of Gambero Rosso, Italy’s – and the wine world’s – revered “it” guide to Italian wines, includes Sicilian wineries Cusumano, Donnafugata, Firriato, Planeta, Ceuso, Carlo Pellegrino, Settesoli and Fuedo Arancio among the best and most honoured in the country. This year 18,000 wines from 2,256 producers were tasted and among the “three glasses” top awards were a pack of Sicilian bottles. More, Gambero Rosso’s 2008 Red Wine of the year is Sicilian (Faro Palari 2005), as is the Best Sweet White Wine – Donnafugata’s Passito di Pantelleria Ben Ryè 2006. In 2007 the Best White Wine was from Etna, one of Sicily’s most fertile wine areas (Benanti’s Pietramarina 2002). Gambero Rosso’s editors noted, “It doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together. Sicily is one of the most vital and brilliant regions flying the Italian flag.”

It’s also among the hottest up-andcoming wine areas anywhere. But it wasn’t always so. For decades winemakers made millions of bottles of serviceable, inexpensive wines that mostly didn’t taste very good. Things started to improve 20 years ago, but it’s only been in the last decade that change has seriously taken hold thanks to investment, improved winegrowing and winemaking methods and blending of native Sicilian grapes with international varieties. The results are in bottle – and in Gambero Rosso.

Today 75 percent of Sicily’s wine is produced by cooperatives, down from 90 percent now that new, smaller wineries are making most of the island’s premium wines. One exception is Settesoli, allegedly Sicily’s most important co-op run by Diego Planeta, that’s making expressive, high quality Mandarossa Nero d’Avola and Mandarossa Chardonnay. Planeta’s daughter Francesa and cousins Alessio and Santi Planeta craft some of Sicily’s most respected wines at the family’s Planeta “farm” established in the early 1990s. The Planeta Syrah and Planeta Santa Cecilia are perennial Gambero Rosso award-winners.

The world is taking note of Sicily’s vastly improved wines and is enthusiastically drinking them up. Locally we have access to more than three dozen including four Marsalas. But it’s Nero d’Avola, Sicily’s best known and most widely planted indigenous red grape that’s leading the charge. Cusumano winery’s Diego Cusumano describes it as “Quite simply Sicily in a bottle.” Often compared to Syrah, Nero d’Avola is an easy drinking red with spicy, dark-berry fruit but can be assertive and tannic. Other well-loved native Sicilian red grapes like Perricone (Pignatello) and Nerello are virtually unknown here.

White wine grapes are still Sicily’s largest plantings for good reason. They’re ideal with the island’s seafood-driven cuisine especially tuna, swordfish and sardines. Insolia (Inzolia) and Catarratto are the stars but Grillo is fast ratcheting up the popularity polls. Other notable native white grapes include Zibibbio, Grecanico, Carricante, Malvasia and Moscato, few of which we see in BC.

Insolia is poetically described as the “heart of Sicily.” It’s light and aromatic with tropical fruit flavours and often likened to a cross between Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. Crisp, citrusy Grillo, once mostly a blending grape used in Marsala, is a great food wine – try the excellent Fuedo d’Elimi Grillo and Feudo Arancio Grillo – and are especially well suited to fish and Asian dishes.

Sicilian-grown international varietals like Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah are enjoying success whether bottled singly like the Mandarossa Chardonnay, Duca di Castelmonte Tripidium (Cabernet Sauvignon) and Planeta Syrah or blended like Voga Quattro (Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Pinot Noir) and Firriato Camelot, an intense blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.

Sicily makes sweet wines too. Marsala, a fortified number made from Grillo, Cataratto and Insolia, once relegated to a cooking wine role, has regained its rep and is back in vogue while Passito di Pantelleria, made on Pantelleria Island from Zibibbio (Moscato d’Alessandria) is winning world-wide accolades.

There’s no time like the present to get acquainted with Sicily’s wines from the appealingly rustic Firriato Primula Nero d’Avola to Donnafugata’s nero d’Avoladominant stellar Mille e una Notte. They’re delicious and among the best anywhere.