The vine has a checkered past on the island called Sicily. Local legend has it, according to Burton Anderson, that Bacchus brought the first plantings and "squeezed the first wine from its grapes at the foot of Etna." The Greeks certainly did their part, as did the Romans, but then the abstemious Arabs banned wine entirely, with a few heathen types keeping wine culture alive surreptitiously. Today, wines of all types thrive in Sicily, including whites from Grillo and Inzolia; reds from Nero d'Avola and "international" varieties   More

The vine has a checkered past on the island called Sicily. Local legend has it, according to Burton Anderson, that Bacchus brought the first plantings and "squeezed the first wine from its grapes at the foot of Etna." The Greeks certainly did their part, as did the Romans, but then the abstemious Arabs banned wine entirely, with a few heathen types keeping wine culture alive surreptitiously. Today, wines of all types thrive in Sicily, including whites from Grillo and Inzolia; reds from Nero d'Avola and "international" varieties such as Cabernet and Merlot; and some utterly fantastic dessert wines such as the justly famous Malvasia delle Lipari (actually from some smaller islands off Sicily's coast).   Less