August 24, 2024

The Best Wineries in Noto and Beyond

Matt Bird

One of my favourite Noto activities is winery tours and wine tastings. As in any wine-producing country, some incredible wines are recommended, and others are not. These are my recommendations!

Italy is the World's Largest Wine Producer

Italy is the largest wine-producing region in the world, with 47 million hectolitres, closely followed by France with 42 million hectolitres and Spain with 33 million hectolitres (2023 figures).

Sicily is Italy's fourth largest wine-producing region, with Veneto, Apulia and Emilia-Romagna in first, second and third place, respectively. It is most certainly not all about quantity, with 186 wines receiving medals at the Decanter World Wine Awards 2023.

Sicily has several unique indigenous grape varietals. The most produced reds are Nero d'Avola, Frappato and Nerello Mascalese, and as for the whites, Grillo, Catarratto and Inzolia.

Noto Wineries

Marabino

Winemaker Pierpaolo Messina stood outside the Marabino estate winery and pointed out the Ionian Sea on the horizon just 7km away, then turned south to see the Mediterranean Sea just 6.5km away. We walked among the vineyards, discussing the different soil types of limestone and clay and tasting the grapes from the vine—Nero d’Avola and Moscato.

Marabino has the highest view of their terrior and works with it to produce their wines. They also love to innovate and break the rules, which they do with the new sun-oxidised wine. Pierpaolo smiled and said, “You can taste the sun!”

“Marabino was born in 2002; during these years, we have tried to produce wines with an increasingly precise territorial identity without following market trends or demands, basing ourselves on what we like to do and what we like to drink. Today, the company has 29 vineyards. We are located in Contrada Buonivini in the Noto area in South-Eastern Sicily. Our name, Marabino, means “land of the beloved sun.” (from the Marabino website)

Cost: 40 euros (for six wines)

Location: C.da Buonivini, Noto, SR 96017

Instagram: Marabino

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Cantina Marilina

Marilina is the epitome of a family-run winery with added love, joy and fun. The wines and other goodies are named after family members. The olive oil is called Lina, after the mother, and the vinegar, after Angelos, the father. The reserve wines Marilina and Federica are named after the sisters, and even the five-year-old granddaughter Cecile has a sparkling wine named after her.

The reserve collection wines are very special. The Marilina is 100% Grecanico grape and the Frederica 100% Nero d'Avola grape. Both are aged for 12 months in concrete and then 1-2 years in oak. Only around 2,000 bottles of each wine are made every year. The bottles are hand-filled and sealed, first with a cork and then with wax and string. Together with a handwritten number on each bottle, they are truly unique.

“Angelo Paternò arrived in Noto in 2001 after gaining numerous professional experiences around Sicily. The light and the proximity to the sea made him fall in love with the Val di Noto, an area he already knew very well from a pedoclimatic point of view. In 2007, he began the project of building the winery, which finished in 2009, materialising his initial idea shared with his daughter Marilina: the wines that he could finally produce were and are with a strong identity from the vigorous link with the territory and come out of the natural process of life cycles, without forcing anything. Precisely for this reason, the existing vineyards of 25 hectares were maintained, to which ten more were added by new plantings, including international grape varieties, now represented by the white and red Currivu.” (from the Marilina website)

Cost: 35 euros (for four wines and nibbles)

Location: Cantina Marilina do Marilina Parterno, C.Da San Lorenze SNC, 96017 - Noto (SR)

Instagram: Catina Marilina

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Barone Sergio

Luigia Sergio and I sat sipping their wine on a makeshift table made from crates, looking over the vineyards. She explained her belief that wine is actually straightforward and that too much of the wine industry has become pompous. I'm inclined to agree with her.

The winery's walls and other outbuildings are beautifully adorned with artwork—or, should I say, murals—by incredible talents such as Duo Amazonas, Ligama and Andrea Parisio.

“We are not made to talk about ourselves; we prefer to let our grapes, our wine and the artworks on our walls speak. Thanks to his decades of experience, we have successfully cultivated and processed premium grapes such as Nero d'Avola and Moscato, making the most of the unique characteristics of this area of Sicily. But it doesn't stop there: we have added Lucignola, a relic vine variety, to these wines.” (from the Barone Sergio website).

Cost: 30 euros (for 4 wines)

Location: Azienda Agricola Barone Sergio, 96018 - Pachino (SR)

Instagram: Barone Sergio

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Planeta

Planeta is a different sort of winery—it is very BIG! Producing 2.4 million bottles of wine a year and being one of the top three exporters of Sicilian wine to the rest of the world means it is super industrial.

“For five centuries and through 17 generations, our family has been committed to navigating the paths of agricultural evolution in the complex land of Sicily, with an approach always oriented towards openness and innovation. Where outdated social customs and production practices have often confined the agricultural world, we have inherited, generation after generation, an instinct to change and to generate positive changes around us, in culture and among people.” (from the Planeta website).

I recommend their ‘Journey Through Sicily’ tour, which takes you through their winery. In the non-summer season, you taste their wines as you go; in the summer season, the heat means you taste in the relative cool of the house.

Cost: From 60 euros (for five wines and aperitivo)

Location: Contrada Coda Finocchio, 96017 - Noto (SR)

Instagram: Planeta

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Zisola

Zisola is the southern outpost of the Tuscan Mazzei family of wineries. Sadly, the winery was closed during the week I was due to tour and taste in August 2024 because of COVID-19. I have enjoyed their Doppoozeta in a restaurant, an excellent example of a Nero d’Avola wine.

“The Mazzei identified the latent potential of this land, which is rich in history, culture, and charm, and started an ambitious winemaking project in 2003. A property of 50 hectares, the area extends around the three buildings, "bagli" of the estate, of which the main one enjoys a wonderful view over Noto and the surrounding "gardens" cultivated with vineyards, citrus trees, olives, and almonds.” (from the Zisola website)

Cost: From 35 euros (for three wines)

Location: Contrada Zisola, Strada Provinciale, Noto, SR 96017

Instagram: Zisola

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Modica Wineries

Terresol

Terresol is the ultimate family winery, run by Giorgio and Stefano, father and son. It is a cellar-door experience where you can turn up, taste one or two wines and head home with a case of what you love the most.

What I find remarkable is Terresol's commitment to doing what everyone else told them could not be done: producing sparkling wine using the traditional champagne method. In my opinion, their Mandala is the best Sicilian sparkling wine I’ve tasted.

“Cantina Terrasol is a winery in Frigintini - Modica, dedicated to producing Sicilian wines. The business was born on the enchanting Hyblean plateau, combining sun, earth, tradition, and technology. Starting from the attention and care in selecting grapes (from areas with a high Sicilian wine vocation), Cantina Terrasol carries out a state-of-the-art winemaking process, respecting the environment and tradition. No detail is overlooked, as each production stage is personally supervised and controlled, from the entry of the grapes to maceration, from fermentation to ageing to the final bottling stage. Everything is indispensable to achieve the sought-after quality objective.” (from the Terresol website).

Cost: None

Location: Via Vanella 180, 7 Frigintini, 97015 - Modica (RG)

Instagram: Terresol

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Vittoria Wineries

Vittoria is one of the oldest wine growing regions in Sicily and in 2005 was given DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata - literally Controlled Designation of Origin) a certification applied to Italian wines that, under the law, have distinctive features of superior quality, determined by the grape varietal and the production area as well as the techniques for processing and aging.

Please note Vittoria is a 2-hour drive from Noto.

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COS

I love it when friends decide to do something they love together. That is precisely how Azienda Agricola COS was founded in 1980. Three friends, Giambattista Cilia, Cirino Strano and Giusto Occhipinti, who love wine, decided to produce their wine. The acronym of their last names is where the name for the winery—COS—comes from!

COS is reputed to be the first wine made in Sicily to make natural wines.

Some of their wines are fermented in Pithos or clay pots. These are sunk into the group to aid with temperature control, an ancient pre-Greek winemaking method. Clay is porous, allowing air into the wine, resulting in a slightly oxidised style, which I love!

“We are at the farthest tip of South Eastern Sicily. The taste of Africa jumps out at you from the various architectural ruins and, more importantly, from the vegetation: olive, carob and almond trees and vines abound. The climate also recalls Africa with its red, ochre and yellow tones. Our wines tell our story and the story of our ancestral lands. For over 3000 years, the Earth has had grape vines. This is an extraordinary gift that we have been given and that we have received with humility and work within our way. We are always looking to work as artists in terms of our concept of a wine. This has enabled us to undertake a challenging path but one that we are fully satisfied with and that we intend to pursue wholeheartedly. For the past 30 years, we have been creating our history and putting it into every glass of our wine, our story, the story of our ancestral lands.” (from the COS website).

Cost: None

Location: S.P. 3 Acate-Chiaramonte, 97019 - Vittoria (RG)

Instagram: NA

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Occhipinti

Arianna Occhipinti's winery, one of Italy's most celebrated women winemakers, is on the now famous Strada Provinciale 68. She is fiercely traditional in her approach to wine and very respectful of the land and nature. She uses green manure in alternate rows, treatments with only copper and sulphur, fermentation carried out in cement tanks with indigenous yeasts, no filtration and ageing in large wood barrels with low or no toasting.

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“Vittoria, the wine, the vineyard, the dry stone walls. This is my land. The sun rising, early in the morning, on the Iblei Mountains, while the sky blushes in layers and the warm light spreads among the rows of pits in Lupo, my district. I love the grapes of these places, Frappato and Nero d'Avola. I find myself in their expression, in their being harmonious and unequal. I adore the strength of knowing how to carry a past and a future inside at the same time.” (from the Occhipinti website)