Italy’s Southern Stars: Campania and Sicily with Michael Franz

2 hours, $85

Italy’s remarkably deep and diverse wine culture offers many fine examples grown in various locales south of Rome, but Campania and Sicily reign supreme in the production of truly great wines made from indigenous grape varieties.

Although not as commercialized as wines from Italy’s northerly regions, Campania and Sicily are now making superb wines that are causing sleepless nights for aristocratic producers in the north.  Reds made from Aglianico, Nerello Mascalese, Frappato and Nero d’Avola can combine the power one would expect from the sunny south with remarkable finesse lent by high elevation sites and proximity to cooling waters.  And as we’ll experience, whites derived from Greco, Fiano and Catarratto can be compellingly complex, especially when grown in the distinctive soils near Europe’s two most famous volcanoes, Etna and Vesuvius.