WTI Magazine #76    2016 February 15
Author : Jennifer Gentile Martin for www.vinotravelsitaly.com      Translation by:

This year I want to focus more this year on some of the even lesser known varietals and regions that I haven't talked to much about. That brings me to my topic today: a dessert wine for the holiday, Moscato and Passito di Pantelleria. Even though I love dry red wines I have a real appreciation for all wines and I definitely have a sweet tooth so when it comes to dessert wines they all call my name.

Pantelleria is an island off the coast of Sicily bordering Africa. It suffers from the hot winds blowing over from Africa known as the scirocco winds. These winds as you can imagine can be damaging to the grapes grown here as it can literally bake the grapes. The wineries of the island protect their grapes by wrapping the vines to look like wreaths that cover up and protect the grapes with the leaves. I've also seen this done on the island of Santorini in Greece due to it's intense heat and wind. With these temperatures the residual sugars in the grapes increase and produce very ripe grapes, resulting in the amazing dessert wines known as the Passito di Pantelleria or Moscato di Pantelleria.

These wines are made from moscato grapes, which here are also known as zibibbo. What a fun word for a grape! The grapes are actually harvested at night out of the intense day sun to help balance the acidity and sugar. The wines are produced in a multitude of styles as well. You'll find it in a dry style, sweet/dolce style, liquoroso (fortified) and the most popular known as the passito style. What makes this wine special is that the grapes are actually dried out in the sun on volcanic black sun concentrating the sugars further. The Passito di Pantelleria is one of the top dessert wines that you'll find throughout Italy.

Any version that you can find to experience is worth the treat. A popular producer and wine on the US market from Pantelleria is that from the well-known Donnafugata winery known as Ben Rye. This wine retails in about the mid $40's, but is quite delightful.