Going with family in 3 weeks to Catania, Agrigento and Taoromina for a week. Reading through old posts, any new or different ideas? What are the top wineries to visit? Thanks.
Andrew - Just saw your post will give you some info. But what was posted in these threads still seems good.
I am not a fan of the big Nero d’ Avola wines. Just too much for me. Cerasuolo di Vittoria (blend of Nero and Frappato) or Frappato are good choices. And the Etna wines are amazing. Might be hard to find off of Etna.
Etna is about 45min from Taormina. Some of the places are not easy to visit, but worth it.
We had a nice visit here but it might be trade only, not sure
http://www.vinicolabenanti.it/en/home/
Really like the wines from these two estates. But they area further south and you might be too far to visit.
Agree with the above winery suggestions. I would also add Cantine Valenti (via Roma,42,in Passopisciaro, Castiglione di Sicilia, 95030 Catania), a winery run by Giovanni Valenti. He was an incredibly gracious host, and has some excellent wine (Puritani). His vineyards are exactly adjacent to those of Passopisciara’s. Another nice winery to try and visit is Gambino’s…the other end of the extreme from Valenti in terms of commercialization. However, the setting is beautiful, they have a nice lunch/wine tasting and they have been producing their wine for more than 40 yrs (ie, not newcomers to the area) from the highest vinyeards in the Etna region…and of course they have some very nice wines, especially their Etna Petto Dragone.
Thanks for the comebacks
If you have a chance to read this book, it will be helpful:
http://www.amazon.com/World-Sicilian-Wine-Bill-Nesto/dp/0520266188
Gives a lot of historical background as well as details on wines and wineries.
Ken thanks for the recommendation.
The other must read book about the wines of Sicily before going is Palmento