This is the first of a four-part series exploring Sicily’s wines. In Part One, I will give a brief overview of Sicilian wines. In Parts Two and Three, we will highlight Sicily’s top rated white and red wines. Finally, in Part Four, I will discuss the future of Sicilian wines in an interview with Lynn Sherriff, MW, a widely acknowledged authority on the subject.

Sicily is the Mediterranean’s largest island. It is triangular shaped, approximately 170 miles long and 110 miles wide at its widest point. Its surface area, which includes the offshore islands, is about 10,700 square miles. Wine production in Sicily goes back almost three millennia. The ancient Greeks dubbed Sicily and southern Italy Oenotria, “land of the vine.”