Speaker 1: The topics and opinions expressed on the following show are
Speaker 1: solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not
Speaker 1: those of W four WN Radio It's employees or affiliates.
Speaker 1: We make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
Speaker 1: or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability,
Speaker 1: explicit or implied shall be extended to W four WN
Speaker 1: Radio It's employees or affiliates. Any questions or comment should
Speaker 1: be directed to those show hosts.
Speaker 2: Thank you for choosing W four WN Radio.
Speaker 3: Hello, and welcome to Fearless Fabulous You. How is everybody
Speaker 3: doing today? I am Melanie, I'm your host. I'm feeling
Speaker 3: pretty good. I just came back from a wonderful trip.
Speaker 3: So we're gonna have a little travel themed show today.
Speaker 3: What some wine to wet your appetite for travel and
Speaker 3: good wine and food, and hopefully to cross a destination
Speaker 3: off your travel bucket list. Yes, we're talking about Sicily.
Speaker 3: I don't know about you, but I have always wanted
Speaker 3: to go to Sicily.
Speaker 4: Lucky me.
Speaker 3: I've been four times hosted wine trips because this many
Speaker 3: of you know. I also write about wine and host
Speaker 3: another show called The Connected table. Many of you may
Speaker 3: have seen Cicily in the Red Hot or should say
Speaker 3: White Hot series on television HBO show White Lotus, which
Speaker 3: has several series, but season two was filmed in Sicily
Speaker 3: at a hotel that is actually fictitious, but it's there
Speaker 3: in the town of Taramino.
Speaker 4: I don't know what the name of it.
Speaker 3: Was in the show, but it was the San Domenico Palace,
Speaker 3: which is a four seasons hotel where the show was filmed.
Speaker 4: We're going to talk about Sicily.
Speaker 3: We're not going to talk about White Lotus because that
Speaker 3: show is fabulous, by the way. But what I will
Speaker 3: say is the White Lotus effect has had a major
Speaker 3: impact on tourism to Sicily. How do I know that
Speaker 3: because we were in the area where White Lotus was
Speaker 3: filmed for the past ten days more or less, more
Speaker 3: or less, and people told us there that the Sicily
Speaker 3: and this particular area which is in the northeastern part
Speaker 3: of Sicily, which is a very very large island that
Speaker 3: locals call it a continent, that they've seen tourism increase
Speaker 3: two hundred percent. So what does that mean to you, Well,
Speaker 3: you probably don't want to go in high travel months
Speaker 3: like August and even September is quite busy, but if
Speaker 3: you want to go in the beautiful shoulder seasons or
Speaker 3: even in early spring, where I have been to Sicily
Speaker 3: and I believe April or May, and it's gorgeous. And
Speaker 3: I was just there in September just as harvest was
Speaker 3: about to begin, so that's always special for me. It's
Speaker 3: a great time to visit. And also if you're lucky,
Speaker 3: airfares are lower. So we're going to talk about Sicily,
Speaker 3: and we're specifically going to talk about the region I
Speaker 3: most recently went to. So I've been to Sicily, as
Speaker 3: I said, four times. I have flown into Palermo, which
Speaker 3: is a major city to the north and fabulous, and
Speaker 3: this time I flew into Catania, which is a port
Speaker 3: city more in the southeast.
Speaker 4: They are miles apart.
Speaker 3: So I just want to tell you this is I
Speaker 3: just cautioned a very dear friend who's going to go
Speaker 3: visit Sicily. Don't think you can do it all in
Speaker 3: a week. It's a very big island, as I said,
Speaker 3: locals call it a continent, and you either drive for
Speaker 3: hours and hours to get where you want from one
Speaker 3: end to the other, or you fly, which is what
Speaker 3: I would recommend, But what I really recommend is like
Speaker 3: with all countries, whether it's France or Spain or Italy,
Speaker 3: unless you have the time and the patients to do
Speaker 3: what they call the grand tour of the entire area
Speaker 3: and see a lot of things a little bit of time,
Speaker 3: or a lot of things in a lot of time,
Speaker 3: but spend very little time in each pick an area,
Speaker 3: concentrate it and dig in and as the Italian soil
Speaker 3: like to say, enjoy la dolcia ferniante, which is just
Speaker 3: enjoy the simple life of doing nothing. Because too many
Speaker 3: of Americans simply love to plan and plan and plan
Speaker 3: and plan, and we're so busy planning and checking places
Speaker 3: to see off our bucket list. Do we ever really
Speaker 3: relax and have a good time. Probably not, right. So
Speaker 3: I'm going to talk to you about where I was
Speaker 3: recently in Sicily and if you visit, but more importantly,
Speaker 3: I'm going to talk about what you can enjoy about
Speaker 3: this area in your own homes, which is the wonderful,
Speaker 3: really wonderful Etna doc wines. Okay, so, uh, picture Sicily.
Speaker 3: I'm going to give you a little picture of Sicily.
Speaker 3: It is Okay, where is it. It's off the toe
Speaker 3: of Italy's big boot in the Mediterranean Sea. It's to
Speaker 3: the south the Terranean Sea and the Ionian Sea, so
Speaker 3: it's got three c's. Actually parts of Sicily to the
Speaker 3: west northwest of Sis you're actually closer to Africa and
Speaker 3: you'll see a lot of Arabic influences. To the western
Speaker 3: part of Sicily. To the eastern part, you're going to
Speaker 3: see more Greek influences. It's really really interesting. We flew
Speaker 3: to the city of Katanya. It's got a great airporg
Speaker 3: and it was super busy. So if you're flying, be
Speaker 3: prepared for packed planes. Take some carrot sticks or you know,
Speaker 3: chopped up fresh veggies to snack on, because you will
Speaker 3: not get any food, or you'll get really bad food
Speaker 3: if you're flying an economy, which we did, and be
Speaker 3: prepared for long lines. Just be patient because there will
Speaker 3: be long lines. But once you get to Katanya and
Speaker 3: you get outside the airport, it's quite beautiful. A lot
Speaker 3: of people don't spend any time in Katanya, which is
Speaker 3: the major way to get to the area of northeastern Sicily,
Speaker 3: which I'm going to discuss today. David and I spent
Speaker 3: an entire day there. We spent an night and a
Speaker 3: day there, and we just admired all the beautiful Baroque
Speaker 3: architecture of the many churches. There is an incredible fish
Speaker 3: market where you will see the most amazing arrays of
Speaker 3: fresh fish that will then be served to you at
Speaker 3: that little cafe down the streets.
Speaker 4: That's right.
Speaker 3: A lot of great eating places, and there's a port
Speaker 3: and parks, and we found Katania to be wonderful and
Speaker 3: we would recommend if you're going to visit at least
Speaker 3: take a day or a night maybe at the end
Speaker 3: of your trip to chill and enjoy Katanya. Okay, we
Speaker 3: rented a car. I like to be free and easy,
Speaker 3: and we were stopping and visiting winery, so that was
Speaker 3: my choice. But there's some very good tour organizers in
Speaker 3: Sicily that can help you get around and visit wineries
Speaker 3: with now having to do anything except to sit back
Speaker 3: and enjoy the view, enjoy the food, and enjoy the
Speaker 3: wine at the wine tours is one if you're really
Speaker 3: into wine. And I have no business affiliation with any
Speaker 3: of these. Wish I did, but I don't, So if
Speaker 3: you're really into volcanoes I happen to be. I've traveled
Speaker 3: to many volcanic regions. I happen to like volcanic wines.
Speaker 3: These wines, you know, express the tearawa of their area,
Speaker 3: which is a lot of minerality because the volcanic soul
Speaker 3: has a lot of minerals in it. It's nutrient rich.
Speaker 3: It's really fabulous. I like these wines a lot. They
Speaker 3: have a lot of character to them. They don't like
Speaker 3: follow on your palate like a wet sponge. They kind
Speaker 3: of lift up your palette and they go really well
Speaker 3: with food. And the wines around Mount Etna, which is
Speaker 3: Europe's largest and still active volcano located where in Sicily,
Speaker 3: produces some great wines. So just across my volcanic my
Speaker 3: volcano bucket list, visits off my list to share with you.
Speaker 3: I've been to Pompeii in Campana, which is now a
Speaker 3: dormant volcano with a great museum to the great eruptions
Speaker 3: that took place. Really kind of amazing. You see petrified bodies,
Speaker 3: and the wines are great around there. I've been to Hawaii.
Speaker 3: I've been to two volcanoes in Hawaii on the Big
Speaker 3: Island and on Maui and now I've been to Etna.
Speaker 3: The volcanoes in Hawaii are still active, particularly one on
Speaker 3: the Big Island, Mount Nana.
Speaker 4: It's pretty active.
Speaker 3: In fact, a few weeks before we left for Sicily,
Speaker 3: it erupted. And when that happens, the airport is closed.
Speaker 3: So just know that, you know, if you're planning a
Speaker 3: trip there could be an eruption.
Speaker 4: And think about the people who live there.
Speaker 3: I asked them, how do you feel living in the
Speaker 3: shadow of a volcano that is still quite active and
Speaker 3: shows her struff because you call volcanos her because they're
Speaker 3: part of Mother Nature, and you can see her pumping
Speaker 3: out the smoke and pumping out the fumes. And they
Speaker 3: just shrug and say, that's life. And you know, that's
Speaker 3: why the Italians seem to be a lot happier than Americans.
Speaker 3: They live in the shadow of an active volcano. It
Speaker 3: could explode any time, cover their properties with you know,
Speaker 3: volcano ash bury their homes. But that's life, you know.
Speaker 3: They live Ladulcho Ferniente. I live in the shadow of
Speaker 3: hurricanes and New Orleans same latitude. In fact, this is interesting.
Speaker 3: New Orleans, where I live now, has one of the
Speaker 3: greatest and largest Sicilian American populations. Maybe that spirit of shit,
Speaker 3: it could happen, life happens, is why New Orleans is
Speaker 3: so much fun. Back to Sicily, Okay, they call in
Speaker 3: Sicilian dialect mount Enna amuntan a montagna. It is a
Speaker 3: big mountain. It is very high and what's really neat.
Speaker 3: You can see it from the airport, Cantania airport. You
Speaker 3: can see it driving around and it is like the
Speaker 3: centerpiece of northwest northeastern Sicily. It's the centerpiece. To the
Speaker 3: north where White Lotus was filmed is tay or Mina
Speaker 3: Ta r i m Na. This is a very steep,
Speaker 3: beautiful resort area overlooking the sea, and this is a
Speaker 3: great place to stay if you want to enjoy the sun,
Speaker 3: if you want to climb on ruins, if you want
Speaker 3: to see beautiful gardens, if you want to live la
Speaker 3: dolcea vita. That's right, that's sweet life. Because of Italian
Speaker 3: so how to do la delca farnietna farniente the sweet
Speaker 3: life of doing nothing, and they like to live la
Speaker 3: delcha vita, the good life. We drove first, we went
Speaker 3: on an organized tour that was hosted by the Consortio
Speaker 3: of the region of Etna DOC. We want to thank
Speaker 3: them for hosting us, because otherwise we couldn't have done
Speaker 3: this trip. It's a consortio per la tutta la de
Speaker 3: vini Etna DOC. What does that mean if you're not
Speaker 3: familiar with wine, Well, a DOC is actually a very
Speaker 3: important designation. It's it's a PDO, a protected designation of
Speaker 3: origin in the European Union. In Italian, it means the
Speaker 3: nomina nazioni do orgini control lata. It is a designation
Speaker 3: of quality, standards and guidelines that help identify and protect
Speaker 3: wines of a specific area. So Etna DOC, which was
Speaker 3: established in nineteen sixty eight, so in the history of
Speaker 3: Etna very young, because wine making dates back centuries. This
Speaker 3: is a centuries old island that was performed from the
Speaker 3: sea by the volcano.
Speaker 4: The DOC was only established in.
Speaker 3: Nineteen sixty eight, and as I said, in European Union terms,
Speaker 3: that's called PDO protected protected designation of origin in English
Speaker 3: and established as standards and guidelines that the producers must
Speaker 3: follow in order to be designated a DOC. At no
Speaker 3: wine there are other wines made in Etna that may
Speaker 3: not be DOC. It has no impact on the quality.
Speaker 3: It has to do on the style and guidelines of
Speaker 3: protected production. Those wines are called Terra siciliana. They may
Speaker 3: be made with grapes that are not part of the doc.
Speaker 4: I e.
Speaker 3: Reasling in Chordona or pin No noir, which we did
Speaker 3: while we were visiting. But we're going to get into
Speaker 3: what makes ETNA unique because we want you and I
Speaker 3: want you to think about ordering an ETNA wine when
Speaker 3: you go to a restaurant or asking your local retailer
Speaker 3: to try it, because you're going to love them. Okay,
Speaker 3: you're going to love them. These are terrific wines, are
Speaker 3: terrific food wines, and for those if you want to
Speaker 3: bring a gift to someone, they're a fun wine to discuss.
Speaker 4: Okay. So the DOC is.
Speaker 3: Going to include, you know, specifications of what grapes may
Speaker 3: be used, where they can be sourced, from, locations of vineyards,
Speaker 3: and as we learn WITHOUTNET, it even designates how high
Speaker 3: the vineyards can be. They can't be above a certain
Speaker 3: number of meters. I think it's eight hundred and fifty.
Speaker 3: So if there's higher vineyards than that, and we saw
Speaker 3: them and visited them, they can't be part of the
Speaker 3: DOC doesn't impact quality, it just is the guidelines. There's
Speaker 3: also restrictions on level of alcohol and other factors. This
Speaker 3: enforces the consistency of product and identity for ETNA DOC
Speaker 3: ATNA DOC wines and their production zones. Many of these
Speaker 3: it's interesting so end the wines have been EDNA has
Speaker 3: been making wines for years. Families used to just make
Speaker 3: them in these very old wineries that are called palmentos.
Speaker 3: You'll see them dotted around the area. They're old stone
Speaker 3: buildings that were very rustic wineries. Yes, that's where you
Speaker 3: lily crushed grapes with your feet, and you'll see them around.
Speaker 3: Some are still in disrepair, but many of the wineries
Speaker 3: and hotels have taken and purchased and acquired these palmenos
Speaker 3: and turned into some pretty amazing structures. We stayed at
Speaker 3: a hotel called Etna Quotemile, which has a palmento converted
Speaker 3: into a bar area. We visited Planeta, a very famous
Speaker 3: winery that was also featured in The White Lotus and
Speaker 3: their big hospitality tasting room at Planeta and the Sharanova
Speaker 3: Vineyards is a former palmento. We also stayed at a
Speaker 3: winery Fabulous Wines also called Palmento Costanza. It is actually
Speaker 3: still a working, modernized palmento. So Palmento is a important
Speaker 3: term to know if you go visit Atna wine region
Speaker 3: because it's the old historic wine production facilities and it's
Speaker 3: really amazing to tour them and to see how they're
Speaker 3: being resurrected into hospitality, tasting rooms, offices, dining rooms and
Speaker 3: for some working wineries. Okay, so those families used to
Speaker 3: make wines that way, and then you know, some things happened,
Speaker 3: like World War two, which devastated Italy. Italy was really
Speaker 3: impacted terribly by the wars and conflicts, and it became
Speaker 3: very poor. There was also something called the mafia. Now
Speaker 3: they've really tried to fight and chase the mafia out
Speaker 3: of Sicily, but if you've ever seen all those Mafia movies,
Speaker 3: you know most of them took place in Sicily. Interestingly enough,
Speaker 3: a lot of the vineyards that were owned by mafia
Speaker 3: were confiscated and have been taken back and brought back
Speaker 3: to life really vendors. There's a whole program under that.
Speaker 3: So a lot of the vineyards lay in decay and
Speaker 3: were unused because people couldn't afford to maintain them. A
Speaker 3: lot of young people moved away to find better economic
Speaker 3: opportunities elsewhere. There was a huge immigration in the late
Speaker 3: nineteenth century of Sicilians to America and to New Orleans,
Speaker 3: which is what has shaped the great population of Sicilia
Speaker 3: Americans in New Orleans. And today there are many wonderful restaurants, hotels, businesses, shops,
Speaker 3: supermarkets that are owned by people of Sicilian heritage. So
Speaker 3: it's you know, it's amazing. But what's really interesting, So,
Speaker 3: as I mentioned that DOC was established in nineteen sixty eight,
Speaker 3: and that kind of started to slowly usher in a
Speaker 3: new modern era for Sicilian wines. Many were made and
Speaker 3: you could just go up to the Palmetto and fill
Speaker 3: your giant container and bring the wines home. But when
Speaker 3: the winery started bottling their wine for commercial sale and
Speaker 3: exporting their wines, things really took off. I would say
Speaker 3: that for such an old region in many ways, including wine,
Speaker 3: it's still a fairly new region in terms of discovering
Speaker 3: the great producers and bottle wines of Sicily of great quality.
Speaker 3: Because a lot of the people who came and started
Speaker 3: bringing back the wines and revitalizing. The vineyards really started
Speaker 3: finding their way in the early two thousand, so like
Speaker 3: thirty years ago, thirty five years ago, twenty years ago,
Speaker 3: kind of young. A lot of the producers we met
Speaker 3: they started in two thousand and wine. That seems to
Speaker 3: be a big year. And of course, as you know,
Speaker 3: it takes a long time for vines to come to fruition.
Speaker 3: A lot of the vines that are in Sicily and
Speaker 3: in Edina are what they call prefiloca, which means they
Speaker 3: survived the philoshra light of the late nineteenth century, which
Speaker 3: killed most of the vineyards in Europe. And why is
Speaker 3: that Because volcanic soils are resistance to flocks up pretty
Speaker 3: sandy soils. So that's kind of cool because these are
Speaker 3: very old vines. They're really large, gnurly trunks and branches,
Speaker 3: and the wines are pretty amazing. So Atna is a
Speaker 3: very large regions that says, Sicily is a large island
Speaker 3: slash conon and it's a very large region. And there's
Speaker 3: four areas of Na, literally four areas where the slopes
Speaker 3: produce vineyards that produce wine. There's the north, which is
Speaker 3: where most of the producers are concentrated. It's known for
Speaker 3: producing some of the Edna Dock's finest red wines, which
Speaker 3: we're going to get into. And that's where David and I,
Speaker 3: my husband and I kind of based ourselves for our
Speaker 3: little mini tour after our big press tour, we went
Speaker 3: to Etna North and specifically because this area is known
Speaker 3: for three things that we were interested in. One, there's
Speaker 3: some really great hiking and beautiful parks, and we love
Speaker 3: to hike because it's a great way to walk off
Speaker 3: all that you're in cheese you're eating. And Two, some
Speaker 3: of the finest and well known producers are there. We
Speaker 3: wanted to meet some of them. And three it's known
Speaker 3: for its red wines, and we have but to love
Speaker 3: both the rennow whites of at in the dock, but
Speaker 3: these red wines are particularly unique and special and we
Speaker 3: want to do a deep dive into them. So that's
Speaker 3: the northern slope. It has very high elevations and in
Speaker 3: wine terms, what they call the diural diurnal weather ship,
Speaker 3: which is really great for creating balanced, nurtured grapes. That
Speaker 3: means warm sunny days, cool mountain air at night really
Speaker 3: keeps things, you know, dry. Cooling breezes really Nutrius the grapes,
Speaker 3: and as I said, while they do grow white wines
Speaker 3: there and we also tasted some reaslings and charonese are
Speaker 3: pretty awesome. It's known for its threads. And there's the
Speaker 3: eastern slope which looks over the Ionian Sea. It's a
Speaker 3: bit rainier and windier, and here the atna bianci are
Speaker 3: at No white wines of the dock are grown. There's
Speaker 3: a specific little subregion near a town called Milo, which
Speaker 3: we did not visit, and I want to because there's
Speaker 3: a couple of dozen producers that produce something called etna
Speaker 3: bianchi superior wines, and they're really great. It's just all
Speaker 3: about terrowah. You know, you grow, you grow, and you're
Speaker 3: a terrewah is you know, which shapes the wine from
Speaker 3: the land up in the and the ground up, the atmosphere,
Speaker 3: the nutrients in the soil. It's a sense of place,
Speaker 3: and I will say that those wines had a completely
Speaker 3: sense of place. Then to the south it's more maritime
Speaker 3: and really more beachy beach weather, as they'd say, So
Speaker 3: you've got sea breezes a little more humidity, and it's
Speaker 3: known for the white wines. And then way to the west.
Speaker 3: There's really a kind of an interesting dry area. I
Speaker 3: saw two wineries in the southwestern slope and had some
Speaker 3: very good reds and whites. We actually drove the entire
Speaker 3: road around at Noa. We circum navigated the mountain. It
Speaker 3: was really cool. We saw some beautiful areas. This area
Speaker 3: is also known let's skip wine for a minute. It's
Speaker 3: also known for pistachios. They're called the Bronte like the
Speaker 3: Wuthering Heights Bronte pistachio from the town called Bronte, and
Speaker 3: they are just the most amazing pistachios. If you go
Speaker 3: buy them. You can also buy pistachio creme, which is
Speaker 3: in that canolis. This area is, you know, created the canoli.
Speaker 3: Everybody send gives you a canola cannolis with We're caught
Speaker 3: to cheese. Were caught a cheese which I can face
Speaker 3: plant in, or pistachio cream or nocciola nut cream. I
Speaker 3: bought back some pisaschio basil sauce. I can't wait to
Speaker 3: have it on pasta. It's also known for apples and fruit.
Speaker 3: We had some very good fruit while we were there,
Speaker 3: and of course they have a lot of farming for
Speaker 3: cows and pigs. If you like salumi, you're gonna love it.
Speaker 3: Up there in the mountain area to the south in Catania,
Speaker 3: it's a fish port, and we had the most incredible fish,
Speaker 3: unbelievable fish. I'm a fish person, I'm a pescataria and
Speaker 3: I was in heaven. It was September, so we ate
Speaker 3: a lot of eggplant, because I've learned that in Europe
Speaker 3: and especially in Italy, you eat what's ever grown and
Speaker 3: produced within like maybe thirty kilometers where you are, So
Speaker 3: for us, it was eggplant and cappanata. It's probably one
Speaker 3: of the most known dishes other than in pasta ala norma,
Speaker 3: which is an eggplant lasagna type dish. I've never made either,
Speaker 3: but I ate a lot of it while I was
Speaker 3: there because I don't eat meat, and so the easiest
Speaker 3: substitute for people like me was mushrooms, which were also
Speaker 3: in season and delicious. They were nutty and wild and eggplant.
Speaker 3: So I had my fill of eggplant and mushrooms, while
Speaker 3: David ate a lot of really good beef dishes.
Speaker 4: So what are you drinking? This is what you know.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna give you the quick and easy if you
Speaker 3: go the words to know and if you want to try,
Speaker 3: here's what to buy. Okay, So I've already told you
Speaker 3: that the doc is important word to know if you're
Speaker 3: looking for a designation on a bottle. I already told
Speaker 3: you a little history like the palmento, which is really
Speaker 3: just something to if you go there, you're kind of
Speaker 3: cool if you know what it means.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 3: Another term you may want to know and respect is
Speaker 3: lava flow.
Speaker 4: And why is that kind of amazing?
Speaker 3: Because literally the wines are and the soils and the
Speaker 3: vineyards are like typed by lava flow.
Speaker 4: We'll drive We were driving and Vintnor's.
Speaker 3: Would talk about, well, this is a liva flow from
Speaker 3: sixteen fourteen, and you're having wine that was produced from
Speaker 3: vines that have been growing in the lava flow of
Speaker 3: sixteen fourteen. And then we drove and we saw the
Speaker 3: giant lava flow of nineteen eighty one. They're all named
Speaker 3: and documented and there are a lot of and what
Speaker 3: does the lava flow look like? It looks like a
Speaker 3: lava flow of giant blackish brownish rocks that shape and
Speaker 3: tumble down and you just envision it formed over the years,
Speaker 3: because it doesn't happen quickly, and it covers houses and
Speaker 3: you can see decay of old houses that were buried
Speaker 3: in lava flow bury the vines, but nature has a
Speaker 3: way of coming back, and the vines thrive in the
Speaker 3: soil that was produced by the lava flow. Every lava
Speaker 3: flow changes the makeup of the soil and that's what
Speaker 3: makes Etna DC wines incredibly specially unique. Just think about
Speaker 3: that and go with the flow.
Speaker 4: As I like to say.
Speaker 3: The other is a word called contrata. Now I'm going
Speaker 3: to make this really easy for you. If you go
Speaker 3: to Napa Valley or Sonoma, you're know there's Napa Valleys
Speaker 3: and those are big appellations. Inside there's sub apppalations. There's Oakville,
Speaker 3: there's Russian River or Sonoma. There's Alexander Valley for Sonoma,
Speaker 3: there's Petaluma, Gack Soloma. Those are avas within bigger appellations.
Speaker 3: So in and that's just I'm putting this into context.
Speaker 3: So in Atna you have something called the contrata, and
Speaker 3: the contrata is basically a district that is a measurable district.
Speaker 3: And I really don't know how they figure it out
Speaker 3: because there's a map with all the contrata. But it's
Speaker 3: not like when you're driving you say you're entering the
Speaker 3: pasha pieshera contrata. It doesn't say that, but everybody who
Speaker 3: makes and grows grapes knows this. And within a contrata
Speaker 3: which has a just makes wines of distinct character because
Speaker 3: there could be different souls. There are different vineyard plots,
Speaker 3: and different producers may have different vineyard plots in the contrata.
Speaker 3: I just say that because it's going to be a
Speaker 3: term that you will hear if you're traveling into wine country,
Speaker 3: and you just should know it. So I think there's
Speaker 3: a another doc in the area. There's four different slopes
Speaker 3: of production zones, and in the production zones there's a
Speaker 3: contrata mini contrata. I have a map of contrata, and
Speaker 3: then within the contrata are vineyard plots, and those vineya
Speaker 3: plots may have names, the little the areas the vineyards
Speaker 3: may have names, and in those vineyards there may be
Speaker 3: subplots with sub names. That's what creates a and you'll
Speaker 3: see that name on a wine, which makes it a
Speaker 3: clue or single vineyard wine. It's all important because you're
Speaker 3: gonna look for these things when you buy wine on
Speaker 3: the label. Okay, this is the easy part. Okay, there's
Speaker 3: only only four grapes you need to know about at
Speaker 3: in a doc, which is like, wow, that's really easy, right, Okay,
Speaker 3: we're gonna start with the white.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 4: If you love.
Speaker 3: If you love sauvignon blanc and pino grisio, but maybe
Speaker 3: you don't love all sauvign young, sauvignon blanc pinagrecio, because
Speaker 3: if you've tasted sauvignon blancs from around the world, you
Speaker 3: know they're very different. Whether it's New Zealand, Chili, Sonoma,
Speaker 3: or South Africa or France, they're all very different. But
Speaker 3: if you love those kind of crisp, dry white wines
Speaker 3: that kind of zing and zip and have lots of
Speaker 3: citrus notes and a touch of mineral, what is the minerality.
Speaker 4: It's the taste of.
Speaker 3: The soil and the stone and the herbs, that savory
Speaker 3: character you're gonna love.
Speaker 4: And the duck whites you're just gonna love them. I do,
Speaker 4: I absolutely love them. They they zip off your they
Speaker 4: zip between your lips. The main grapes are chiracante, C.
Speaker 3: A R. R.
Speaker 4: I c A n T.
Speaker 3: It's a grape that produces this gray, crisp white wine,
Speaker 3: and it is the main white grape and wine of Etna.
Speaker 3: It's often blended in very small amounts.
Speaker 4: I think the.
Speaker 3: DOC rules allow up to forty percent, but most of
Speaker 3: the Karakanti I taste it only had ten to twenty
Speaker 3: percent of codato. I think cat cat arato codado. It's
Speaker 3: a white grape. It's frequently used to add floral and
Speaker 3: fruit to balance the herbaceous citrus mineral notes. So you
Speaker 3: get a little more floral fruit character. If that's what
Speaker 3: you like, you're gonna like that kind of blend. As
Speaker 3: I said before, and I let'll say some of the
Speaker 3: finest wines that are Bianchi, white, Caracanti, and Colorado are
Speaker 3: on the slopes of southwest Etna. And there's an area
Speaker 3: around its area called Milo where there's Etna. Bianco Superior,
Speaker 3: a special category of white wine, only made a few
Speaker 3: dozen producers, and it really does taste somewhat different. It's
Speaker 3: hard to explain. You just need to taste red super easy,
Speaker 3: and I love these wines. The main grape is called
Speaker 3: Norello Mascalesi. It is a wine that does really well
Speaker 3: in cooler climates, so that's why it does really well
Speaker 3: in the northern slopes of Etna with higher elevation. It's
Speaker 3: often compared to a Pino noir okay, pino noir or
Speaker 3: France or oregon or Nebiolo which is grown in the
Speaker 3: Piedma area of Italy. These are really meat, great, medium
Speaker 3: bodied red wines. Again, great minerality, volcanic wine. Just have
Speaker 3: this zip and zing and just you can just taste
Speaker 3: or a kind of an herbaceousness, but a mineral character.
Speaker 4: That's a good taste.
Speaker 3: It's very unique and again lots of dark wild strawberry
Speaker 3: and raspberry fruit. You could just sip this with many
Speaker 3: types of food, from lighter you know you fish, to
Speaker 3: light meat, white meat, pork. Really terrific. Love these wines
Speaker 3: and if you want something a little more depth and
Speaker 3: spice kick to it. They many of these wines will
Speaker 3: add maybe small amounts of another local indigenous as they say,
Speaker 3: native grape called noirello capuccio, not cappuccino capuccio. Norello capuccio
Speaker 3: often used a small announce to add floral fruit and
Speaker 3: spice to the norello maxcales Sometimes you'll find one hundred
Speaker 3: percent Norello Capuccio. One example is Bananti Winery, very famous winery.
Speaker 3: But most of the time you're going to be drinking
Speaker 3: Karakanti with a little bit of caterato and Narrella Mascalzi
Speaker 3: with a little bit of Norella Capuccio. There are some
Speaker 3: producers like Vienie Franketti, which is a pioneering winery in Edina, North.
Speaker 3: We visited really terrific wines. They're experimenting with Riaesling and
Speaker 3: chardonnay as is Planeta doing some experimenting, and they're terrific wines.
Speaker 3: They are terraced Siciliana, which means they're made in the territory.
Speaker 3: The grapes are grown and cultivated in the Sicily territory.
Speaker 3: But they're not in the DOC. It has no indication
Speaker 3: that they're poor quality. There are really great wines, they
Speaker 3: just don't fit in the ETNA DOC guidelines.
Speaker 4: So that's what you need to ask for when you
Speaker 4: were going to a store looking for wines at ETNA DOC.
Speaker 4: Nirella Mascalesi for the red, Karakanti for the white. Here's
Speaker 4: a fun fact.
Speaker 3: We met a lot of producers eight percent, roughly eight
Speaker 3: percent of theroducers at the dock now are women. Women
Speaker 3: own wineries. We met a lot of them. They many
Speaker 3: of them started. I have inherited the winery in the
Speaker 3: case of Fayudo Cavaleri, wonderful winery that I went to.
Speaker 4: Women own. Others are invested.
Speaker 3: The husband and wife will invest in a winery and
Speaker 3: bring it up really exciting times. So if you visit,
Speaker 3: what do you need to know? You're going to fly
Speaker 3: into Cantanya. You're going to either go with a tour,
Speaker 3: which is perfectly fine, or you'll rent a car. And
Speaker 3: if you rent a car, it's fairly easy to drive around.
Speaker 3: I didn't have any troubles. I suggest I highly recommend
Speaker 3: if you're doing it on your own, to stay in
Speaker 3: an eno tourism, an anotourism hotel, which is a winery
Speaker 3: that has accommodations. Those are so much fun because you
Speaker 3: can do the tour winery tour, and you can book
Speaker 3: of tasting and then you can just fall asleep right
Speaker 3: there at the place at the winery and just you know,
Speaker 3: have dinner nearby, and you don't have to do a
Speaker 3: lot of driving around Because I don't encourage drinking after driving.
Speaker 3: I also encourage spinning and not swallowing when you're tasting wine.
Speaker 3: So a lot of these wineries are on booking dot Com.
Speaker 3: We stayed at Palmento Costanza, a woman owned winery women men.
Speaker 3: Valeria da Gusto owns it with her husband and her
Speaker 3: daughter Serena is involved fabulous wines available in the United States.
Speaker 3: We stayed at her beautiful guest house, which you can book.
Speaker 3: There was a restaurant a little town nearby called Vendotso
Speaker 3: where you can go, very historic, where you can go
Speaker 3: and walk around have dinner. We also went to a
Speaker 3: terrific wine bar that Valeria recommended called CoV Ox. In fact,
Speaker 3: we were there and we saw other wine industry people.
Speaker 3: It's kind of like the hangout, and it's in a
Speaker 3: tiny towns called Soilketto. It's really easy to drive around.
Speaker 3: We stayed one night at Palmento Costanza, and then we
Speaker 3: stayed another night. We stated this beautiful place called Etna Quotamilee,
Speaker 3: which is literally a beautiful hotel with a terrific restaurant
Speaker 3: located in a literally in a lava field, I mean
Speaker 3: lava everywhere, and this beautiful natural Parko at the North
Speaker 3: is nearby. You can go up and hike. We took
Speaker 3: a picnic, we had a wonderful meal. It's a beautiful place.
Speaker 3: It's called Etna Quota Meily. The quote Emilia is.
Speaker 4: A road.
Speaker 3: It's literally a wine route that is where the hotel
Speaker 3: is located that you can drive, connecting Castilioni to Cecilia
Speaker 3: to Rendazzo and there's wineries all along it. You do
Speaker 3: need a point appointments, but we highly recommend at least
Speaker 3: doing two wineries if you're going to be in this area.
Speaker 3: How far is it from Taramino. Well, we didn't really
Speaker 3: go there this trip. We won another trip. It's I
Speaker 3: think it's about ninety minutes. It may be less, but
Speaker 3: you could base yourself with Tiramino and do day trips
Speaker 3: to wine country, or I would suggest staying in one
Speaker 3: country and getting the whole experience personally. It was also
Speaker 3: not very crowded, which I think Tyermino still was, and
Speaker 3: so we loved not having the crowds. Another we did
Speaker 3: not stay at this Eno tourism, but I planned to
Speaker 3: when we come back. Coote Tanera beautiful wines and I
Speaker 3: hear they have a wonderful Eno tourism. I'm going to
Speaker 3: try when I go back to say more Eno tourisms.
Speaker 3: But I did like that in a quote to me Lee.
Speaker 3: We also tried a little town called Malvunga.
Speaker 4: We stayed in this.
Speaker 3: Charming little in Nobody spoke a word of English.
Speaker 4: But it was really fun. It was I forgot that
Speaker 4: it was Arca to look it up.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, I'm having a blank. But it was
Speaker 3: really adorable. I'm going to post it. If you follow
Speaker 3: me at the connected table on Instagram, I'll be able
Speaker 3: to tell you. But it was a terrific little It
Speaker 3: was cold here. It is sorry guys. Uh Larco swany
Speaker 3: Larco to swan Ye. It was a charming Oh my god,
Speaker 3: it's charming in We did have to climb a lot
Speaker 3: of stairs. The owner, Luigi, cooked so much food for
Speaker 3: breakfast for just the two of us. There was only
Speaker 3: two of us in the hotel. I got a room
Speaker 3: with a balcony. We sat outside and had a picnic
Speaker 3: and watched Etna all night in a gorgeous sunset. He
Speaker 3: made us a picnic for the next day. Because he
Speaker 3: cooked so much food for us, I felt like Lucy
Speaker 3: in the chocolate factory. I felt like I had to
Speaker 3: put all his muffins and cookies down my dress to
Speaker 3: pretend I was gonna eat them. Very generous, the hospitality
Speaker 3: is incredible. We also visited Vieni Francetti Andrea Fronketty is
Speaker 3: considered a pioneer for modern Attina wines.
Speaker 4: We did a wonderful tour.
Speaker 3: They do not offer accommodations, but we did an amazing
Speaker 3: tasting there and we were given a tour of the
Speaker 3: different vineyards. And why was that important because we saw
Speaker 3: how altitude affects the vines. We were lucky. The vines
Speaker 3: were ready, the grapes, you're ready to be picked. They
Speaker 3: were trimming the leaves so that the grapes would get
Speaker 3: a little bit more sun to ripen. It's hard work
Speaker 3: working in a vine and this was a busy time,
Speaker 3: so we were grateful that anyone took time to see us.
Speaker 3: Our last visit was Planeta, very famous winery featured in
Speaker 3: the White Lotus, which we're getting back to full circumnavigate
Speaker 3: to White Lotus.
Speaker 4: There was a tour group there. It was a Canadian group.
Speaker 3: They even have a sign where they have like where
Speaker 3: white Lotus was filmed near a vineyard. This is a
Speaker 3: very famous winery family run by a family that came
Speaker 3: from Spain. They were actually an aristocratic family from Spain
Speaker 3: that was bequested the land. They have wineries also in
Speaker 3: other areas of Sicily, including Vittorio Noto and up in Messina.
Speaker 3: We tasted wines from all the areas, but we were
Speaker 3: in their specific Sharon Nova vineyards where we have their
Speaker 3: hospitality center. It was really terrific and we stayed at
Speaker 3: a place called Parcoscotello, really terrific place with a beautiful park,
Speaker 3: and right next door was one of my other favorite wineries.
Speaker 3: Literally right next door to the Parcoctella hotel was Donna Fugatta.
Speaker 4: Donna Fugata means.
Speaker 3: Fleeing Women, beautiful winery. One of the prettiest tasting rooms
Speaker 3: I've ever been in. You're literally in a glass enclosed
Speaker 3: square box, you know, tasting room, and you can see
Speaker 3: the vineyards. This is a company very much into art.
Speaker 3: Donna Fugatta also has wineries around Italy and that is
Speaker 3: very well known for it's ben Ray in Pentalaria, beautiful winery.
Speaker 3: So what's nice is that all of these wineries are
Speaker 3: fairly located next to each other. As we drove, David
Speaker 3: pointed out a few that he had visited. Because we
Speaker 3: went on our little group wine trip, they split David
Speaker 3: and Nye up, so we went to different wineries. Petri
Speaker 3: Dulce is a very modern looking winery that I'd like
Speaker 3: to go visit when I go back. As I said, Cootenera.
Speaker 3: Some other wines say No Bananti, very famous wine, one
Speaker 3: of the legends of the area. Bananti terrific wine. Sees
Speaker 3: are all available in the United States, really terrific. You
Speaker 3: can also get I've talked about still wines, but there
Speaker 3: are also sparkling wines using Nirello Moscow lazy grapes. They're terrific.
Speaker 3: Some of the producers that I would recommend. I had Furiato,
Speaker 3: which is also in the North Area. I went to
Speaker 3: visited them my last trip. Firiato is probably the largest
Speaker 3: sparkling wine producer in Etna, and they use the metado classico,
Speaker 3: which is the same method as they make sparkling wines
Speaker 3: or champagne and champagne. The meta champagnis It's called metado
Speaker 3: classico in Italy. Ioud suggest if you go to spend
Speaker 3: at least a solid week in Etna.
Speaker 4: Doc.
Speaker 3: There are things that we didn't do that we would
Speaker 3: have liked to have done that I would recommend. One
Speaker 3: is to do a tour up the mountain. We did
Speaker 3: that our first trip. It was an organized tour. We
Speaker 3: went up and we looked at one of the giant
Speaker 3: you know, volcanic bowls as they call them. There's several.
Speaker 3: You know, there's a peak you can go, people said,
Speaker 3: I met people at one of the hotels. We stayed
Speaker 3: in ill Peak Glow, which is a terrific more of
Speaker 3: a hotel golf resort in near CASTILLIONI de Cecilia, which
Speaker 3: is a region but also a historic city, and they
Speaker 3: were summoning Atna. I don't quite understand what's summoning at
Speaker 3: and it means because there's various craters, not bowls, craters
Speaker 3: that shape Atna. But you can book a tour to
Speaker 3: go see sunrise sunset. I think it would be fabulous.
Speaker 3: So if we ever go back and have more leisure time,
Speaker 3: I would do that. We did it during the day
Speaker 3: and I will tell you it was a transformative experience
Speaker 3: walking through that volcanic sandy soil to see a crater.
Speaker 3: You can also take boat tours up to see another
Speaker 3: volcano in the Ionian Islands. Yeah, there's another volcano there. Uh.
Speaker 3: And then of course there are numerous dining tours to
Speaker 3: try different restaurants and meals of food is terrific. Of course,
Speaker 3: you will eat pasta and there will be a dish
Speaker 3: after the pasta, so don't overdo it with the pasta dish.
Speaker 3: As I mentioned earlier in the show, this area is
Speaker 3: known for their wonderful eggplant dishes. Pasta ala norma as
Speaker 3: the signature dish out on Cheni is one of the
Speaker 3: great street foods. There's two different versions. It's funny. On
Speaker 3: one side of Sicily toward Palermo, the Ironcini tend to
Speaker 3: be round and then over toward Etna and that eastern Partisisiti.
Speaker 3: They tend to look like big point of caps. I'm
Speaker 3: not sure why, but it all goes back to origins
Speaker 3: and style. And the Sicilians love their sweets. The breakfasts
Speaker 3: tend to be sweet. Yeah, a lot of cake, a
Speaker 3: lot of cookies, a lot of you know, pastry type things.
Speaker 3: I lived on Ricada all the time I lived in Ricotta.
Speaker 3: Fresh tomatoes and sundried tomatoes and fresh greens every day.
Speaker 3: That for me is like the greatest breakfast ever in
Speaker 3: this area. And I probably overdosed on ricotta, best ricada
Speaker 3: I have ever had.
Speaker 4: So it's a beautiful area. I have heard that it's
Speaker 4: quite busy at Christmas.
Speaker 3: I'd love to go. You can actually ski on Mount Etna.
Speaker 3: If you're into skiing and you really want to take
Speaker 3: something off your bucket list, you can do something that
Speaker 3: I call the sea to ski or ski to see.
Speaker 3: You can go skiing on Mount Etna and then go
Speaker 3: hang down on the beaches near Catanya further south, and
Speaker 3: you will have had a sea to ski experience. As
Speaker 3: I said, we went in May. It was gorgeous, great time,
Speaker 3: and we went in September, also gorgeous, great time, a
Speaker 3: bit hotter, but we also needed a jacket windbreakers up
Speaker 3: in the Edna North area because it got a little cool.
Speaker 3: So hopefully I've given you some tips on where to
Speaker 3: go and what to drink, and I hope you'll give
Speaker 3: it a shot. It's at the doc at the doc
Speaker 3: in the beautiful Island, or as they say, conent of
Speaker 3: Sicily put it on your bucket list, Put it on
Speaker 3: your sip list and always enjoy with great pleasure and
Speaker 3: in moderation. I'm Melanie Young. This is s Fearless Fabulous you.
Speaker 3: I hope I can share more of my travels with
Speaker 3: you on future shows. I know some of you have
Speaker 3: asked about it, and if you want to ask me
Speaker 3: more questions, you can direct message me and Instagram at
Speaker 3: Melanie Fabulous. And do check out at my other show
Speaker 3: with a Connected Table Live, which I co host with
Speaker 3: my husband David Ransom, because we interview a lot of
Speaker 3: wine producers and we will be talking about at a
Speaker 3: trip more in wine talk and we are going to
Speaker 3: be featuring some of the producers that I have mentioned
Speaker 3: on that show coming up, so you can follow us
Speaker 3: there on Instagram at the Connected Table. Thank you for
Speaker 3: joining me. Remember you can choose to live life on
Speaker 3: your terms. Choose living fearless and fabulously. Always stay as
Speaker 3: I say on my other show and say she'll be curious,
Speaker 3: and remember that travel is probably the best education you'll
Speaker 3: ever have, So go on and explore the world and
Speaker 3: say we'r every moment.
Speaker 4: Thank you for joining me. I Fearless Fabulous. You