Bookmark and Share
 
SicilyWine. Stories and Legends from the Kitchen to the Cellar ©
     
"Greece has taught us the pleasure of light and harmony.
The Muslims brought us the scent of oriental gardens from the legendary Thousand and One Nights; but also the seed of fanatical exaltation, habitual deceit and rapture.
The Spaniards infected us with hyperbole and arrogance, a display of words and rites, the magnanimity of the cavalier gesture, but, with this, the taste of ash and of death."
Gesualdo Bufalino
 
PREFACE

 Sicily is the richest and most interesting region of Italy,  according to recent statistics. In fact, more than 37% of Italian  monumental and artistic wealth is found in the ancient  Trinacria (term given by the ancient Greeks, depicting,  according to classic iconography, the medusa with three legs,  representing the triangular form of the island, and symbol of  the sun).
 With regard to its geographical position, Sicily is, in fact, the  largest island in the center of the Mediterranean Sea, and has  always been of great strategic importance for all populations  that have visited it.
Sicily is a point of encounter, practically obligatory for  the  diverse peoples that gravitate in the area of Mare Nostrum, or  “Our Sea”, a place of business exchange where different  cultures have met and assimilated over the centuries, like multicolored tassels in a mosaic.
It is, shall we say, an ancient Melting Pot of people with various languages, habits, and beliefs, that have fused together in testimony of the richness that diversity provides to humanity.
The Sicilian monumental and artistic panorama emphasizes the profoundly beautiful combination of styles and patterns in each and every territory: from the Greek statues of the Satiro in Mazara del Vallo and Mothia (Trapani) and the Greco-Roman theater of Taormina to the mosaics at Piazza Armerina (Enna), and on and on through the centuries up to the present day Fiumara d’Arte of Santo Stefano and the world’s largest Open Air Museum at Gibellina (Trapani).
The great German traveler, Wolfgang Goethe (poet and writer during the XVII century) said, “To come to Italy and not visit Sicily, is not to recognize its true essence and spirit”.
This enormous and invaluable wealth, you will see, is discovered not only in the artistic-monumental aspect, but also in the richness of its enogastronomic tradition, already appreciated worldwide, though perhaps not well understood.
In Sicily, more than in other parts of the world, human history (from the Latin, Istor, or to comprehend) and legend (form Latin, Legere, or to read) are closely connected to both wine and culinary tradition.
We invite you, therefore, to read the history of Sicily by a different literary key, on that we find quite appropriate, as well as “appetizing”, and which we call
“Sicilian Wine. Stories and Legends from the Kitchen to the Cellar.”
 
FROM THE ANCIENT GREEKS TO...SICILYWINE.COM

Agriculture, together with fishing, have been among the major activities  performed by Sicilians, and their conquerors, since ancient times.
Under a sun that shines for 6-8 months per year and a fertile territory, most of volcanic origin, with varying microclimates and altitudes, from the Iblei Mountains to the Madonie and Etna, to the valleys and plateaus along the beaches, Sicily allows for all types of cultivation. It was for this  reason that the ancient Greeks decided to venture to opposite shores of  the Mediterranean and  establish different colonies on the island, many  of which, such as Siracusa, or Syracuse once capital of Magna Grecia,  or “Great Greece”, became so important that their names persist today.
 The first indigenous inhabitants of the island, of 3000 B.C., the Sicani,  and the Siculi, were dedicated to the foraging of wild fruits of the  island, nourishing themselves with berries.
 We do not know much about the culinary habits of the Phoenicians,  originally from what we call Lebanon today, who were skilled sailors  that journeyed along the entire Mediterranean, conducting business with  all types of products, and founding important cities such as Palermo  (which means “port city”).
While the Phoenicians were able fishermen, they were not, however, great cultivators. Despite this, we most likely owe them for the arrival of the olive and fig plants to our island.
We know that the Phoenicians surely ate boiled greens, dried fruit, and fried fish.
Remnants of their civilization are still visible at Motya, a small island near the coast of Marsala.
In 500 B.C., the Carthaginians of North Africa established their first settlements, but they were not the only ones. In fact, during nearly the exact same period on the southeastern coast of Sicily, between Syracuse, Naxos and Taormina, the Greeks arrived.
Right away, the Greeks found this land ideal for the cultivation of their favorite plants: the olive and the vine.
War broke out almost immediately between the Greeks and the Carthaginians, but lets leave that part for the historians.
 
WINE FOR THE SPIRIT...OLIVE OIL FOR THE BODY: THE GREEK MYTHS

Homer referred to Sicilian olive oil in his Odyssey, which he based largely on this island of volcanoes and vineyards. Indeed, today we believe olive oil was the sole food product exported by the Greeks, according to its availability in Solone, around the sixth century B.C. In fact, it was here that the conservation of olives in “salamoia”, or, in salt, began, and where whole and pitted olives were packed and shipped for arrival at the tables of the gourmands of the period.
 The grain here is also of the highest quality, as the characteristics  of durum wheat make it optimal both for long-term preservation,  and immediate use for bread-making. It is said that the rich taste of  the bread was an inspirational factor in the Romans’ decision to  fight for the land that later became known as the “bread basket of  Rome.”
 Eventually, it was Sicilian grain that was used to make the durum  wheat cakes that sustained many legions of seafarers and conquerors that covered the whole of the known world...
Along with the grain from Sicily, the ancient Romans exported olives, fish and cheeses in terracotta vases they called vasa salsamenteria or "delicatessen vases", made from the rich Sicilian earth. Interestingly, the salsamenteria of the time later came to be called salumeria, which is used today to mean “delicatessen.”
Unfortunately, the ancient Romans preferred the cultivation of grain to that of vines, which led to the abandonment of many vineyards and also the deforestation of large areas of land in order to make use of the wood needed for warships.
Plato (philosophical disciple of Socrates, Athens, 427-347 B.C.) write about the lifestyle and diet of the Greeks of Syracuse, which in his opinion, was overloaded with agricultural products, including cheeses, olives, onions, figs, myrtle and roasted chestnuts, often accompanied by wine.
 
THE ARRIVAL OF THE VINES AND THE LEGEND OF DIONYSIUS

As we well know, the ancient Greeks, and then the Romans, loved myths and legends - myths and legends that were recorded by the eminent poets and philosophers of their time, and who remain fundamental to western culture today, including Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, just to name a few.
Their narratives touched upon weakness and virtue, nobility and gods, and depicted women and men who confronted wars and adventures, whether for passion or simply in search of a better understanding of the mysteries of the world and this life.
 According to some of these legends, it was jealousy that precipitated the  arrival of grapevines in Sicily. Zeus, the father of the gods, and always on  the lookout for new love interests, fell for Armonia, a beautiful young  maiden. It was his wife who, upon learning of this betrayal, went straight for  the counterattack, transforming herself into the young maiden’s food, and  convincing her to ask Zeus to appear to her in all of his majestic splendor  with which he ruled Olympus. Armonia was already pregnant when, between  claps of thunder, and flashes of lightning, Zeus appeared. The glorious sight  was too much for her to bear, and the strength of her emotion caused her to  give birth prematurely, shedding light on a most breathtakingly beautiful  baby boy.
 At that moment, Zeus recognized the foul play, and immediately sewed the infant to one of his legs, completing the gestation period much as an incubator would, and for this reason, the child was called “Dionysus,” that is, the son of Zeus, the god of fertility, joy, and well-being. Dionysus decided to leave the Ellade and escape to Sicily, bringing a grape vine with him. As he was undertaking a long sea voyage, and needed to protect the small plant from the elements, he first placed it inside the bone of a bird, and later inside that of a lion, and since it kept growing, he finally placed it in the bone of a donkey. Thus was born the first ancient rule of drinking, and which is still worth remembering today: "A good glass of wine makes you light as a bird, another drink and you are courageous as a lion, but when you exaggerate with wine, you end up an ass!." Upon his arrival in Sicily, Dionysus planted the first vineyard at Naxos, just below Taormina, the first Greek colony.
 
ULYSSES AND POLYPHEMUS...A LEGENDARY DRINK

The wine that came forth was strong and generous, and took well to transport, as compared to much of the must that came from other provinces, a fact well-known to Odysseus (referred to as Ulysses in Latin).
Ulysses, the principal protagonist of Homer’s Odyssey (book IX), disembarks at Sicily, where his hunger for knowledge, and food, leads him and his companions to battle with Polyphemus.
 According to Greek and Roman mythology, Polyphemus was a  cyclops: a giant man with just one eye. The cyclopes were  blacksmiths, and helpers of Efesto or Vulcan, who most likely  lived in widely dispersed caves in the vicinity of Etna Volcano.  Ulysses and his men, weary from their journey at sea, came upon  this territory and took refuge in one of the caves, where they  feasted on all the food they could find, and rested... until the  monster, and cannibal, Polyphemus, returns home.
 Upon discovering the trespassers, Polyphemus imprisons them in  the cave, making no secret of his plan to eat them for dinner.
Ulysses knew that the terrible monster would not be beaten by force, but by wit. Ulysses sent his men to collect the grapes of a most potent wine, probably Nerello Mascalese, which grows plentifully in those parts, and convinced Polyphemus to drink their juice, offering him “the nectar of the gods”, that is, wine.
Polyphemus, unknowing of the consequence, drank as much of the delicious nectar as they could extract. He adored this newfound pleasure, and, between mouthfuls of bread and cheese, he gulped the wine until he was quite intoxicated, and feel asleep without securing his prisoners.
|  1 of 4   |  next >>
 
 
   1.

   2.



   3.



   4.



   5.



   6.




   7.




   8.



   9.



  10.


  11.



  12.



  13.



  14.




  15.



  16.



  17.





  18.


  19.



  20.



  21.

  22.






agribugilfezza.com





supreme wines


firriato wines


efesto


sherbrooke cellars


 
     
 
 
©Copyright 2010 VanVakys Art International IIS. All rights reserved.