The Grapes of Worth

Planeta Wines distills a taste of Sicily 

By Danny Brody

Francesca Planeta says her family’s wines are all about the grapes.

Ask the average wine drinker which region of Italy produces the most wine and the answer would probably include Tuscany, home of Chianti, and Brunello di Montalcino or Piedmont, home to world-famous Barolo’s and Barbaresco’s. But, in truth, Sicily produces more wine than any of Italy’s 20 recognized wine-growing regions, and one woman is determined to ensure that most of that production is of top quality.

“In Sicily, we produce more wine than Australia,” explains Francesca Planeta, the 32-year-old head of marketing for her family’s wine-making business, Planeta Wines. “But right now, only 20 percent could be considered quality wine. The rest is bulk, or tavola (table wine).”

Still, Sicily’s future looks bright. Right now, Planeta spends half of her time on the road, promoting not just Planeta Wines but the whole idea that Sicily can be a modern wine lover’s dream. “In the old days on the road, the first question people would ask me when I mentioned Sicily would be about the Mafia. Then around the end of the ’90s, people stopped talking about the Mafia, and started talking about the beauty.” 

In fact, with its great climate and rich history, Sicily’s food and wine tourism has become very fashionable. Even the Nero d’Avola grape, once sneered at for its use in high-alcohol swill sold in bulk for blending, has seen its fortunes rise. The $36 2006 Planeta Santa Cecilia  (pronounced Cheh-SHEEL-ya), in fact, is made from 100 percent Nero d’Avola, from the Noto region of Sicily, which Planeta hopes will get its own official designation in 2008. The wine has a remarkable aroma of pepper along with the fruit and tastes pleasantly of currants.

“We started out with the international varieties of grapes in order to compete not just in Italy but with the whole world,” says Planeta, speaking with a charming Italian-British accent, a byproduct of having an Italian father and an English mother. And indeed, their Chardonnay, which retains a smooth, mild oak dimension, is still their top moneymaker. “We always planned to market our native grapes as well.” 

To that end, the La Segreta red and white wines were created, an inexpensive ($13-15) entry into the classier Sicilian wines. While the red is made from 50 percent Nero d’Avola, along with Merlot, Syrah and a bit of Cabernet Franc, the white is 50 percent Grecianico, a native grape, with Chardonnay, Viognier and Fiano, another native grape, rounding out the blend. “We consider La Segreta our ‘little cru,’” says Planeta wistfully, as though talking about her two small boys back in Milan. “Similar wines from other regions of Italy or from France are double or triple the price.” 

There is indeed a fine texture to these wines, with the red leaning toward toasted raisins, and the white very earthy and aromatic. The labels portray a map of the vineyard in Menfi, in southeastern Sicily, where the Planeta family plans to open a hotel/resort in spring 2009. It also serves as a reminder of the Planeta family’s appreciation of the terrain where the grapes are grown, and as tribute to their own sprawling empire, which now spans five geographic areas including, most recently, Etna, home of the famous volcano.

While wine-making in Sicily may not date back as far as Mount Etna’s eruptions, some say that the Phoenicians, and then the Greeks, began cultivating the grape as early as 800 B.C. The Arabs eventually brought with them irrigation, and Sicily’s wine-making industry has never looked back. The climate is similar in many ways to California’s Napa Valley, but is, perhaps, even more stable. “Hot is not a problem,” Planeta jokes. Although the white wine Fiano grape is considered native to Campania, in Italy’s south, Planeta feels the micro-climate in Sicily changes the grape. The 2006 Cometa ($35), made from 100 percent Fiano, proves her point. It has a rich aroma of pear and vanilla, and hits the tongue with a complex arrangement of peaches, wild herbs and tropical fruits, such as pineapple. It even seems to pair with eggplant as well as with duck, which is not an easy task. 

Perhaps the key to the success of Sicilian wines, as with all Italian wines, stems from their perfect marriage with Italian food, especially regional dishes, which are growing in popularity every day, as diners even here in Miami desire Tuscan, Piemontese and Sardinian food. Perhaps then Americans can find these unique grapes as satisfying as the more familiar Italian offerings.

What would be the greatest compliment someone could offer after drinking Planeta’s wines? “You know what I’d love to hear? ‘This tastes Sicilian.’ That’s all I’d need to hear.”