Sicily's wines, once mainly used for blending, have come into their own, and it's about time. Nero d'Avola, Sicily's famed red wine grape, is at last being celebrated for its bold, fruit-forward flavor, which pairs so wonderfully with Sicilian cuisine.

Winemaking on one of Europe's largest islands dates back millennia — to around 4,000 B.C., in fact. In a 2017 study published in the Microchemical Journal, researchers led by the University of South Florida's Davide Tanasi tested residues from pottery found in a cave at Monte Kronio in western Sicily.