Our first full day in Sicily was completely filled up with wine education, thanks to Ben (AKA North) Spencer's The Etna Wine School. Ben used to be the barrel master at Bernardus Winery and his wife, Nadine, is a former co-worker of mine who is of Sicilian descent. About three months before Bill and I moved to England, he and Nadine moved back to her family's home on the eastern side of Sicily, so that Ben could start the wine school.
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| On the volcano |
Ben & Nadine arrived at our house early that first morning with a people-mover type short bus in tow, and off we headed to various wineries on the volcano. Volcanic soil makes for very happy grapes!
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| Photographing vineyard and volcano |
We started our education at Terrazze dell'Etna, a newer winery that owns what used to be many smaller plots on Mount Etna. As we walked through the vineyard, learning about and tasting the grapes as we went, it was hard not to stop every two minutes to take picture after picture.
Sadly, about two minutes before or after I took the photos above and below, my right leg slipped on a wee lava rock and I 'rolled' my left ankle. For the next seven days I limped around on that 'rolled' ankle until it was x-rayed and determined that I had in fact broken my fibula clean through in two separate places. Oops! I'll talk in detail about the incident in a later post, but just keep in mind, almost every photo taken while we were in Sicily was taken whilst I was hobbling around on a broken leg!
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| Grapes! |
Ben and Fabio, the general manager at Terrazze dell'Etna, explained a lot about the grape-growing on this vineyard. They even had a little doohicky that you smeared the fresh grape juice onto, then looked towards the sun to determine the sugar content inside the grape. This helps them know when the grapes are ripe for the picking.
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| Bill learns about grape's sugar content (Photo Credit: The Etna Wine School) |
As we walked around, we saw a lovely rose garden amidst the vineyards.
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| Rose! |
Harvest time was almost upon them, but only a few early grapes were being processed while we were there.
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| Processing the grapes |
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| Processing room |
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| Barrel room |
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| Wine! |
And then it was time to drink! We quickly learned that wine tasting is not the same in Italy as it is in the states. You don't show up and belly up to a bar along with twenty other vacationers. You book ahead and are treated to a private tasting with wine, salami, cheese, bread, olives, the whole nine yards! It was delicious!
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| Let the tasting begin! |
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| Wine tasting in Sicily is always with food. Really, really good food. |
As we walked back to the bus, I had to take one last picture of the vineyard with the steaming volcano in the background. Did I mention that the volcano hadn't steamed since May? Bill didn't get to see hot lava, but at least we got to see Mount Etna in a little bit of action!
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| Another volcano and vineyard picture |
After all that food and wine, we made our way around the mountain for lunch and more wine! The place Ben took us to was a little out of the way restaurant where all the prominent grape growers go to eat, and it was lovely. Fresh pasta with greens and picked-that-day porcini mushrooms - yum!
Did I mention that Ben is a writer for Wine Spectator magazine and is a sometimes judge in major wine competitions? He's the real deal, folks!
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| At the lunch restaurant |
After lunch, we went to another winery, but I'll save that one for my next blog post. See you soon!
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