Postcard from Pantelleria
And some Sicilian wines to track down for next week’s online tasting
While England is already in the grip of autumn I’ve been sweltering on the island of Pantelleria where nighttime temperatures are only a degree or so lower than the day.
It’s a rocky volcanic island I’ve always wanted to visit off the west coast of Sicily about 70km from Tunisia. Not much grows here apart from the local zibibbo (Muscat of Alexandria) vines
I was invited here by Donnafugata one of small number of producers on the island who make a passito - a dessert wine from sun-dried grapes they romantically call Ben Ryé - son of the wind.
When young - the current vintage is 2022 - it’s full of rich orange, almost marmaladey flavours, developing darker, more treacly notes as it ages.
If you baulk at the price* - it IS expensive - you should see the steep terraces they have to cultivate. The vines have to be spaced well apart because of lack of water and semi-buried in the soil to help them resist the ferocious winds that whip the island. (In this respect - and the volcanic soils - it’s similar to Santorini on which, if you remember, I reported last year.)
The other main crops are olives and capers which grow wild in the rocks all over the island but are cultivated on the terraces too looking weirdly like splashes of green paint which have been dropped from a height on the ground.
Most of the rest of the ingredients have to be shipped in from neighbouring Sicily. You’d think there would be abundant quantities of fish but the coast is so treacherously rocky and the currents around the island so strong there’s next to no fishing off the island. The local couscous for example is based on vegetables rather than fish which is common in Trapani.
I haven’t had much of a chance to explore the island - we didn’t get to the town of Pantelleria itself - but we went to a couple of restaurants - La Vela (above), a charming simple seafood restaurant on the beach and the rather smarter Il Principe e la Pirata (top picture) which is in the 2024 Michelin guide.
We stayed at the Pantelleria Dream resort which has rooms dotted over the site in low dammusi-style buildings (dammusi are the local stone houses with domed roofs that help collect the rain).
* you can buy the 2021 from Tivoli wines in the UK for £45.99 for example
Anyway, on to the tasting which, just to remind you is at 6.30pm BST next Wednesday September 11th. If you’d like to join in just sign up - there’s a free trial at the moment.