Top Etna Rosso Wines Blind Taste Test

I think I was inspired by March Madness.  College basketball at this time of year is impossible to ignore, especially because my Alma mater ( Michigan State) is a regular contender. Except this year!!!  I was thinking to myself there are so many wines from just Etna alone how can we figure out our favorites?  Why not have a bunch of Etna Rosso wines and taste them all in the same day and directly compare to find the winners and losers?  So I started picking up all the Etna Rosso wines I could find.  I thought that at most it would be an “Elite 8”, but all of the sudden I ended up with 12 and still left a couple out!  For the test they had to be true Etna Rosso DOC meaning that they could only contain Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio grapes.  No blends with Nero d’Avola, Syrah, Cabernet, etc.

I brought out these old wine tasting party kits Continue reading “Top Etna Rosso Wines Blind Taste Test”

Patria Winery – Mount Etna Sicily

A new winery!  By new winery I mean one of the oldest wineries on Sicily, but new for us.  Now that I have you thoroughly confused lets talk about wine! haha.  Its been a while since we did a winery tour and the timing couldn’t be better.  Spring has started to show itself and we are getting sporadic sunny and 70 days.  Luckily we hit one of the good days for this tasting.  Also this time we had a good group of friends that joined us.  I randomly threw the idea out there a couple weeks ago and everyone else must have been feeling the itch as well because we ended up being 21 strong!!  Look out… 21 Americans & Sicilians climbing Mt. Etna to a winery for a fun filled wino day.  Sounds like Continue reading “Patria Winery – Mount Etna Sicily”

Palmento – A Great Book about Sicilian Wine and Culture

I forgot to talk about this book about a year ago when I read it.  I just ran across it in the house again and remembered that I had to share.   If you need an new book or know someone that has an interest in Sicilian wine or just Sicily for that matter this is a good one. 

This book is great because it not only talks about Continue reading “Palmento – A Great Book about Sicilian Wine and Culture”

West Coast Sicily Wineries – Planeta Winery & Donnafugata Winery

A trip to the West coast of Sicily has been looming over us for the past year.  It has always been on our list to explore over there, but always gets aced for something else that comes up.  The 2+ hour drive definitely has influenced our decision.  Back in August something came up that forced us to commit to a particular weekend.  That something is the annual “E’ la notte di Calici di Stelle”  at the Donnafugata winery.  That translates to “Goblets under the stars.”  Donnafugata puts Continue reading “West Coast Sicily Wineries – Planeta Winery & Donnafugata Winery”

COS Winery Sicily

Some friends of ours were nice enough to invite us to a little weekend at a winery about an hour and a half south of where we live.  COS winery is one of Sicily’s most renowned wine makers.  But in typical Sicilian fashion we weren’t going to just taste some wines for an hour and then move onto the next winery,  we were setup to have a large lunch to accompany our tastings.  We also decided to stay the night at the winery itself, which was a very cool experience.

The guy running the show at COS is Pino.  He is a great host and was a former chef at a Sicilian restaurant in Germany.  He was at  that restaurant over 15 years.  Being able to have a Sicilian restaurant that long in Germany is a feat in itself.  Now he is enjoying a semi retirement in his homeland.  The meal that he prepared Continue reading “COS Winery Sicily”

Murgo Winery

The weather in Sicily is perfect right now.  The island is turning green very quickly with all of the vegetation starting to grow.  Also it is too early in the year for the tourists to start their occupation of Sicily.  With all this in mind, Jess and I really wanted to explore and find a new winery.  We heard of a winery that was pretty close to where we live.  We tried to organize a little group to share in the experience, but it turned into an episode of herding cats. 🙂 .  So we decided to just fly solo and serve as the guinea pigs for the group.  Luckily we were greeted very warmly at Murgo winery and Continue reading “Murgo Winery”