Insolia the Great White Wine Grape of Sicily

We love Italian white wine, "Vino Bianco," and have gotten really excited about Insolia, the great white wine grape of Sicily.

It is a wonderful food friendly wine that is perfect any time or place where you would drink a Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc. Depending on the wine maker's techniques it can be light and bright or more rich and full bodied.

We have been pouring the Fuedo Principi di Butera for friends since getting back from a trip to this vineyard in Italy and they've all loved it. We are buying another case.

Here are two others we tasted recently.

The Butera is our favorite of the three. But, we also liked one called Adesso and one from the Corvo vineyard.

Corvo is the wine you will most easily find in local stores. It sells for around $10.

Corvo, short for Casa Vinicola Duca di Salaparuta, is a fairly large producer in Sicily that was once owned by the regional government but sold to to Illva Saronno, owner of Amaretto di Saronno and Florio Marsala in 2001.

Legends say the name Corvo was after a noisy crow (“corvo” in Italian) that was annoying workers in the vineyard. A local monk came along who had a special connection to animals, took the crow to a cave where convinced it to stay silent if his symbol would be come the name wine. A little far fetched but interesting.

It has a bright pale yellow in color with touches of green. Nice fragrance, delicate and fruity. On the tongue it is pretty well balanced with fresh lemon and mineral with a clean, crisp finish.

I found it to be the lightest of the three, probably a good place to start for new drinkers.

The Adesso is a bit of a mystery. It is very good, on the light side, but I found it to have more interesting flavors than the Corvo. Adesso means NOW, in Italian and this wine does command you into the present.

It is 100% Insolia and is from Sicily but the bottle says "bottled by G.C.Spa Quinzano Italy." Quinzano is way up north in Lombardy. No reference to a particular vineyard or winemaker. That makes me wary of quality.

Nevertheless, I found the wine to be balanced and well-structured it has very nice citrus with lemon and grapefruit, well lots of tropical fruit flavours with hints of almond. Often these Anonymous wines are from very good vineyards what have excess crop.Lucky for us with another $10 bottle.

Now for our favorite. Which costs a little more but well worth it. Unfortunately it is not widely stocked. We ordered ours from Magnolia Wines in Upper Montclair, and are about to order another case.

I have to admit I may be partial having been to the vineyard, seen the vines and sat with the people who make this wine. Read more about our visit here.

This luscious rich wine is has all the delightful flavors of Insolia, but it is richer, with honey and nuts, and a silky almost unctuous quality. I adore it and so has every one I've poured it for.