SICILIAN SPECIAL🏝️ (🏝️ISLAND INFATUATION🏝️)

Source note: This post is adapted from Parched's August 11, 2026 newsletter

Hey,

How good is Sicily? It's been a while since I raved about this Italian outpost! There's just something so satisfying about wines from this island. We rep hard. As should you.

COS are the OGs, obviously. The full range is never not in stock, and it's been that way since before my time. Pioneers who focused on artisanal winemaking when the rest of the island was only concerned with pumping out high-volume, mass-produced crap. They don’t do bad wine. The whole range are essentials.

They then inspired a second wave of talent on the island. Filippo Rizzo returned to his home turf from a stint running restaurants, where he set up Lamoresca in 2000. We have the full range in stock and they've never tasted better. The Rosato is an industry sweetheart. The Frappato is so vibrant you simply couldn’t find a better chilled red if you tried. The Rosso is brinier and built for a bbq, while the salty, nutty Bianco means a trip to the fishmonger is non-negotiable.

Shortly after, in 2004, Arianna, the niece of Giusto from COS, began releasing wines under her own name. The SP68 bottles are purring at the moment in fresh vintages. Her Contrada Bianco has been fooling people blind for top Burgundy, no joke, it's the best vintage of the wine to date.

Her single site Frappato don't get enough love, but with some decent age on them, they're now in the prime of their lives. A new DOCG, plus the two single varietal expressions of the island's reds, here and here.

Nino Barraco is a producer I've long admired, and he's been doing the wine thing for just as long. I'm an avid collector of these personally, but we've simply never had enough space on the shelves. This new bottling for under £20 was too good to ignore. Catarratto above Marsala at its salty, sunkissed best.

Around the same time in the early 2000s, Frank Cornelissen landed on Etna and has been on an ever chaning journey ever since. We've got the free-spirited 2024 Susucaru Rosso with a new label but the same deliciousness inside. Rosato is again always well stocked and wild. The Munjebel wines get a little more serious and gastronomic. We can source plenty of older vintages, and even the unicorn Magma, just flick me an email to see the library reserves we have access too.

Soon after, Eric Narioo and Anna Martens turned their attention to the volcanic slopes with an equally formidable range of Vino Di Anna. The entry Sfuso is a steal at around a score, the Palmento wines step it up a notch while staying effortless and breezy, and the more serious offerings are the real deal too. Pirao is a must-taste from one of the most beautiful vineyards on planet earth.

Finally, we're at present day. There's now a new, raw, next-gen crop of producers absolutely crushing it!

Luca Bambara is our very own Island Import. The Casa orange is practically all gone. Two left… Damn, didn’t even last the summer. Thankfully, the red’s are lithe and nimble. Perfect for the ice bucket. Save 10% here.

It is especially exciting on Etna where the dramatic changes between warm days and cool nights make for excellent grape growing. Cole Ringer made such a splash at their inaugural La Dive, they became cult classics almost instantaneously. Ungrafted, pre-phylloxeric vines from a very special vineyard on their doorstep here. Signature Etna smoke meets plush, ripe cherries, nuts and spice and all things nice here.

Sonia of Gustinella is such a wine crush for me. I vividly remember tasting the first vintage of her red and almost getting emotional. It started as a lockdown project, one which would put your bread baking to shame. Soon she was tending the semi-abandoned vines of the older villagers of Maleto, and the project was in flight. The wines are so soulful and moving. Not as loud or as brash as some, but finely tuned and breathtaking.

The Rosato is all rhubarb and florals up front, razor sharp and mineral on the back. The Rosso is mainly Granazzu, with a splattering of a few local grapes. That's local slang for Grenache, showing the variety in a whole new light. Not often do you see it at 1,100m above sea level on volcanic soil. It's concentrated and plush without being heavy or extracted. Wonderfully smoky, supple and sanguine, it shows the most ethereal side of Etna. The Bianco is perfecting itself each vintage too and is now at its most mineral and saline.

Finally, I've saved my new favourite discovery for last. TreMiLa! Gloria was born and raised on these slopes. She returned in 2019 and took on a vineyard in Contrada Caselle in Milo, a dramatic slope planted with one hectare of Carricante, Nerello Mascalese and some Catarratto. All at eight hundred metres above sea level. A charming place, dominated by the volcano's peak and the shining sea below it. The dark soil is rich in minerals and covered in lapilli, rock fragments deposited after volcanic eruptions.

Everything is done painstakingly by hand, in both the vines and the cellar. While she restores the old family palmento, she's working out of the garage. Plastic buckets (mastelloni) and steel vats are used for spontaneous fermentations without temperature control, while small barrels and demijohns are used as ageing vessels. Lo-fi but high grade.

GenerAzioni 2023 sees a 36 hour maceration, coaxing out a savoury, sapid expression of Milo. Heady and intense, this unfurls wonderfully over the course of a long lunch. All nutty and golden with fine tannin. It will go just as good with the meat as it will with the cheese.

Vintage differences meant Gloria changed things up the following year. 2024 sees a direct press before going straight to fibreglass. Bright and elegant, this shows the site in a more delicate light. Fresher and more floral, but still with an almost honeyed, almond-y thing.

This is her unreal pink. Fifty-year-old vines planted over volcanic sand and basalt. Watermelon-like in both colour and flavour, backed up by amaro, cherries and herbs. A volcanic minerality persists right throughout. This is so serious yet so drinkable. Wish all Rosato tasted like this. Tiny amounts. We wait and pray for the reds soon.

TLDR: HOW GOOD IS SICILY?!?

OH, ICYMI! A LAJIBE RESTOCK + ALLANTE & BOULANGER 2. hehe.

Final final thing of note is that Dan's our Dalston stalwart, and its new sibling Side Piece are hosting a pop up with Mothaiba. They make Asian botanical vodka, both sustainably distilled and female founded. Having just dropped their batch 01, which is doused with pandan, we thought we'd best celebrate by mixing up some Martinis. Pandan pours will be running all day alongside our usual elite wine offering. Going hard on the food offering to, so snacks such as Pho Croquettes from 5:30-9 will be on hand to soak it all up. Full menu above!

Friday 14th and Saturday 15th only . Cocktails at Dan's is a one time kinda thing, so do not miss it.

Ok G2G as a very very special delivery has just arrived. More on that on Thursday. I'll give you a clue. Es ist gut!

Bisou
Fionn
xoxo