Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

This week we’re visiting Italy’s Sicily and Sardegna, the two biggest islands in the Mediterranean. If Italy is likened to a boot, geographically speaking, many people think it appears that Sicily is being booted by the boot. But where does that place Sardegna? It’s quite a bit further northwest from the business-end of the aforementioned boot. To me it appears as if the boot has booted Sardegna up into the North Mediterranean, and Sicily is a part of the boot that has broken off since Sardegna was, well, pretty big to be booting, and probably hard enough to break a boot. . .even a boot the size of Italy. But I digress. . .

I’ve been very interested in Sicily and Sardegna lately, as I’ve been seeing more interesting wines appearing out of those regions. I haven’t seen many wines from the region, which is odd considering Sicily manufactures more wine than anywhere else, but the ones I have found are very interesting, indeed. By the looks of things, the two regions are taking advantage of the new (1996) wine law the Italian government put into place allowing a middle category between simple table wine and official DOC and DOCG certified wines. This opened up the market to wines that weren’t certified DOC, but certainly were not being sold by the bucketful, so were much better than “table wines”. The designation was IGT (Indicazione Geografica Tipica). It sounds boring, but it means that winemakers have a bit more freedom with the wines, grapes they include, and ways in which they make them.

“So, really, Mike” you ask, “What does this mean to me? And try not to make the answer as boring as the last paragraph. . .”

Well, it means Sicily and Sardegna produce wines unlike any other in the world which include grape varieties that are exclusive to these islands. Throughout my searches, I have yet to find most of the grapes seen in this Friday’s tasting anywhere else (besides Shiraz, of course. . .that’s everywhere.) Grapes like Nero d’Avola, Monica, Nieddera, Iszola, Catarratto and Grillo. The last two are used as primary grapes in Marsala, the famous (or is it now notorious) sweet wine from Sicily.

Okay, I’ve bored you enough! The wines from Sicily and Sardegna are certainly unique and tasty, and this is a tasting not to be missed! (It includes 2 whites, 1 rose and 4 reds)

So Friday, May 7th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Sicily and Sardegna!
Villa Tonino 2001 Inzolia, Sicily IGT
Spadafora 2001 Don Pietro Bianco, Sicily IGT
Tasca d’Almerita 2002 Rose di Regaleali, Sicily IGT
Mezzagiornio 2001 Nero d’Avola/Shiraz, Sicily IGT
Argiolas 2001 Perdera, Isola dei Nuraghi IGT, Sardegna

The Extra-Special Premium Pours:
Contini 2000 Nieddera, Sardegna IGT
Morgante 2001 Nero d’Avola D. Antonio, Sicily IGT

Next week is the Wines of New Zealand!
M