Mapping the Sparkling wines of Italy: Sicilia

Sicily is both Italy's southernmost region and the largest island in the Mediterranean. "Blessed with consistently bright sunshine and reliably moderate rainfall, Sicily's classic Mediterranean climate is ideally suited to the production of wine grapes. The warm, dry climate means that mildews and rots are kept to a minimum, particularly in well-ventilated areas that benefit from coastal breezes. This low disease pressure means that chemical sprays are hardly needed, so much Sicilian wine is produced from organic grapes" (wine-searcher.com).

According to Nesto and di Savino (The World of Sicilian Wine), the island is 15% flat, 60% hilly, and 25% mountainous, a situation resulting from the slow contraction of the vast ocean lying between the land masses of Africa and Eurasia. This contraction, especially over the past 50 years, has pushed up the cretaceous limestone seabed -- formed by a mixture of mud, skeletons, and shells of marine organisms deposited over eons -- to form the mountains and hills that we see today. The below figure summarizes the distribution of parent rock and soils on the island.

Sicily's modern quality wine industry was launched in the 1960s, precipitated by events such as the consulting work of Ezio Rivello, the contributions of Diego Planeta, the rise of family wineries, the influence of Giacomo Tachis (the enologist who had risen to fame through his work with Antinori properties), investments from the North, the rise of Etna, and appellation status for the broader region.

The figure below shows the DOC sparkling wines of Sicily.

In a May 22, 2019, Forbes article on Italian sparkling wines, Tom Hyland stated thusly:

Given that the climate of Sicily is warm, you wouldn't expect sparkling wine to be produced here, but there are some very fine examples. A few producers in the Etna zone are crafting some beautifully rendered metodo classico cuvées, including Planeta, Terraze dell'Etna and Murgo. The wines vary from Planeta's 100% Carricante version to several offerings each from the latter two producers. Terraze dell'Etna produces two offerings of Brut made entirely from Chardonnay, with one being aged on its lees for 50 months, and they also produce two different Rosé Brut, again with one being aged for 50 months on the lees; the rosés are made from 90% Pinot Nero and 10% Nerello Mascalese. ... The finest sparkling wines from Sicily in my mind are produced by Murgo.

Murgo is the Mt.-Etna-based agricultural estate founded in 1981 on family historical property by the diplomat Baron Emanuele Scarammacca del Murgo. I recently spoke to one of his eight sons -- Michele -- about the estate and its sparkling wines and teh entirety of that conversation can be found here.

During a tasting with Salvo Foti, noted Etnean Enologist, I was treated to a 2014 Vinudilice Metodo Classico. This was a stunning sparkling wine but, unfortunately it is not made every year. This wine is made with grapes sourced from Vigna Bosco, a vineyard nestled within the depths of a holly oak forest 1300 meters up on Mt. Etna. The vineyard lays claim to being the highest in Europe. The varieties planted here are Alicante, Grecanico, Minella, and some other unidentified varieties. This is the best sparkling wine I have tasted on the mountain to date: Fresh and attention-grabbing with a mouth-filling mousse and great persistence.

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