 I was initiated into the luscious world of Sicilian wines in Verona. It was 2003 and I was at Vinitaly, the annual fair where all of Italy's wine industry turns up.The Sicilians looked almost apologetic for being there.
For long, the rest of Europe saw them as poor cousins hawking bulk wine - and I suspect they got their moment in the spotlight because a leading light of Italy's wine aristocracy, Gianni Zonin, had invested in a vineyard in Sicily.
The experience is etched in my memory - the wines were oozing character and were as warm and welcoming as the Sicilian sun. That's when I discovered Nero d'Avola, Sicily's signature red wine grape. Ten years on, the Sicilians are on a mission to woo India.
Starting tomorrow, a delegation of top Sicilian wine producers, led by the region's wine ambassador, the redoubtable Diego Planeta, will set off on a four-city tour from New Delhi. It will take them from the ITC Maurya on Monday to ITC Sonar Bangla, Kolkata, on Tuesday, ITC Gardenia in Bangalore on Wednesday and finally to ITC Grand Central in Mumbai on Thursday before they return home. A dinner has been planned with the members of the Delhi Wine Club at Ritu Dalmia’s Diva restaurant in Greater Kailash-II, where Chef Carmelo Floridia, who has also come from Sicily to showcase his region’s cuisine, will present the five-course dinner with six wines.
Packed with members of the families that own venerated wine labels such as Tasca d'Almerita and Giuseppe Benanti, the Sicilian government-sponsored delegation will be shepherded by Subhash Arora, President, Indian Wine Academy, and English wine journalist Michele Shah, and will include a Master of Wine (MW), Susan Hulme, who's one of the 220-odd privileged people who have qualified for the exalted title.
 They'll share their wines, including ones (Donnafugata, for instance) whose producers won't be present, with aficionados in the four cities.
And Hulme will conduct masterclasses, which will be a first for India, because no other MW has done it before.
"Some of the flavours of Sicilian wines seem ideally suited to Indian food and the climate, much more so than spirits," Hulme assures us. The Sicilians would love to dine out on these words.
Sourish Bhattacharyya
This article has been published in the January 19 edition of Mail Today, New Delhi (http://epaper.mailtoday.in) and the Daily Mail of London (http://www.dailymail.co.uk), and is being reproduced with the author’s permission. — Editor
Tags:
Diego Planeta, Sourish Bhattacharyya, Sicilian wines, Vinitaly, Gianni Zonin, Nero d’Avola, ITC Maurya, ITC Sonar Bangla, ITC Gardenia, ITC Grand Central, Delhi Wine Club, Diva, Chef Carmelo Floridia, Tasca d’Almerita, Giuseppe Benanti, Subhash Arora, Michele Shah, Master of Wine (MW), Susan Hulme, Donnafugata, Sicilian wines
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