2011 Donnafugata Passito di Pantelleria Ben Rye

Born from a challenging vintage that saw too much rainfall in parts of Sicily and not enough in others, the 2011 Passito di Pantelleria Ben Ryé manages to keep pace with some of the best vintages that precede it. My feeling is that this is a slightly more technical wine that shows the expertise of Donnafugata's winemaking team. By 2011, they had grown accustomed to the new winery and the newer vineyard plantings. This wine shows a bright amber color and classic passito aromas of candied fruit, honey and maple syrup.

Sun-dried Zibibbo (Muscat d'Alexandria). Amber. Complex, layers of smoky bacon, maple syrup and nectarines. Gingery citrus tang, over pecan bass notes. Layers and layers of flavour here, rich fleshy plums, cloves, and shimmering with madeira-like acidity. Stunning. (TC)

A Sicilian oenological masterpiece, the 2011 Passito di Pantelleria Ben Rye bursts from the glass with amazing intensity and vitality. If you have even visited the rustic island of Pantelleria, those aromas of candied fruit, jasmine, almond blossom, dried sage and marine salt will prove hauntingly familiar. This is one of Italy’s most distinctive wines and it is infinitely married to a sense of place. Honey, roasted chestnuts and marzipan appear on the long creamy close. Zibibbo has a good amount of natural acidity and ultimately that’s what sets this delicious dessert wine apart. It feels opulent and luscious, but that crisp vein of zest keeps the palate refreshed. Drink 2014-2025. Many, many years ago as a staff reporter with a Milan-based daily newspaper I was sent to Sicily to cover the night harvest staged at the Donnafugata winery in Contessa Entellina. By picking fruit during cool nighttime temperatures, Donnafugata argued, aromas would be preserved and the resulting wines would be better. Of course, vintners pick fruit at night around the world, but Donnafugata nonetheless packaged this otherwise banal fact as a delectable little morsel of news that would eventually attract the likes of Time magazine, FOX News and other major international media. A harvest party with sultry Middle Eastern music started off the evening. Belly dancers in shiny costumes danced down the vineyard rows under pools of light created by tractors fitted with strobes. Fish couscous was served in painted ceramic bowls and the wine flowed generously throughout the night. Harvesters emerged, sheers in hand, to pick the beautifully ripened fruit hanging from the vines. Their work rhythm would synchronize with the music and dance choreography underway. It was a night I will not soon forget. Thinking back now, I believe the so-called “Sicilian wine renaissance,” sparked in the late 1990s, started with Donnafugata’s night harvest. The Rallo family, including brother and sister Antonio and Jose, brought the wines of Sicily to the attention of an international audience. Their “night harvest” was a public relations stunt, and a stroke of genius, that served to underline Sicily’s psychological shift away from quantity wine production towards quality. I believe it is one of the most important events on a timeline of modern Sicilian wine history. Importer: Folio Fine Wine Partners, www.foliowine.com