Pantelleria: they like it sweet and small
A research supports this theory: Italians prefer small islands but open the whole year around, with shops, cafes and services that work.
The more to the south the island is the longer the season lasts, with sunshine and warm sea even in autumn.
Pantelleria offers unforgettable Octobers, with its bays no longer crowded with bathers and anchored boats. And a surprising hinterland, guardian of rural traditions expressed thorough its locally sourced gastronomy in the trattorie. Pantelleria is an agricultural island, maybe more than a fishermen’s.
Over the years, of course, it became a marine destination in order to have a dream vacation.
Its rural soul opposes its straight hedge of the coastline (Pantelleria has no sand beaches at all except the one surrounding the Lake of Venus), with volcanic rocks and stones as black as ink. Is for this reason that Pantelleria is called the Black Pearl: for these black rocks as dark as the night that wrestle with the cobaltous sea.
The sequence of dry stone walls that cover the hinterland landscapes provide a limit for the terraced crops of capers and Zibibbo grapes, from where the notorious passito comes from.
The sweetness, aromas, warmth, softness and elegance of this win will conquer you straight away.
Over the years, the golden liquid, always home-made, has become more and more appreciated. The wineries celebrate its quality, taste and the unmistakeable aromatic notes.
Among the latest born, we have Cantina Basile; it opened in 2006, requalifying a 7th century old Spanish dammuso, which, at that time, was hosting a wood shop. Towards the sunset, the winery offers tastings of its wines accompanied by delicious local food tastings in the patio of the farm.
Alongside the small producers, we also have the big ones from Sicily, which gave the crucial push to notoriety to the passito, even worldwide. Above all, we have Donna Fugata, located in the middle of its vineyards in contrada Khamma, with its design cellars. It offers guided tours of the winery and vineyards plus a tasting of its wines and the possibility to buy them directly on the spot.
Amber-coloured, aromatic, warm, soft and elegant. Each grape is dried at the sun, refreshed and aromatised with the wind of the island, which carries with it the scent of the sea… definitely a wine that gives intense emotions. Pantelleria in a glass! (From the web site: www.cantinabasile.com)
The Zibbibbo trees are Cultural Heritage of Humanity by Unesco.
