ORANGE-UTAN, AZIENDA AGRICOLA CORTESE

THE REGION

Sicilia (Sicily) is an island region—the largest island in the Mediterranean—which almost touches the Italian peninsula’s toe (Calabria). Its capital and largest city is Palermo. Tourists know Sicilia for the beaches and Greek ruins of the south and east coasts, and its cuisine is world famous. In the wine world, Sicilia is best known for the wines grown on the slopes of Mount Etna, as well as its large volume of everyday-drinking red and white wines. It has 1 DOCG, 23 DOCs , and 7 IGPs. Sicilia’s wine production varies from year to year given the competing trends of making lower volumes of better-quality wine while simultaneously making more wine to satisfy increasing demand for these wines. In 2022, Sicilia was fourth among the Italian regions in wine production with 5.9 million hl (65 million cases)—even though it has the most vineyard area of any region at 119,250 ha (295,000 acres). Sicilia has long favored production at the IGP level, but with the strong promotion of Sicilia DOC, it has seen a surge at the DOP level, now representing almost 40% of volume. The region’s featured grape varieties are Nero d’Avola and Grillo.