Tutti Frutti.

There is a new wine country the only came online just over a decade ago. Big production; larger than Chile, about the same as Australia. Only a couple of hours from Gatwick. Grapes you never heard of and grapes everyone has heard of. Cheap...when you know the right people. Wonderful stuff...when you know the right people.

OK it's not a country exactly. Though it acts like it is. It's Sicily.

Came out of the dark ages, wine wise, only very recently. Mostly (60%+) white wines. And mostly they are the best to buy right now. There is still some work to be done bringing the reds up to world standard....generally speaking. Though there are some stars already.

Sicily is now where our much loved Scipione (Papavero) spends most of his time and I certainly now see why. Every vintage it just gets better. The potential is colossal.

And the adorable wandering wine maker Giorgio Flessati who we first bought from in his northern vineyards near Trento eighteen years ago, has now relocated himself here. So much more exciting, he says. He's a real wine frontiersman is Giorgio; he also works in the Atacama desert, Chile, and Moldova. But revolutionizing what comes out of the ancient vineyards in the hills around Selemi, above Marsala, is now his passion. Grapes like Grillo which was what they made Marsala from, but now cold-fermented by Giorgio, is now crisp and crunchy dry white like you've never tried before. Give Sauvignon Blancs a fright. Catarratto likewise will worry many Chardonnays. And there's so much more to come.

The 'Tutti Frutti' vineyards of Sicily, say Anne our buyer, whisking us round at high speed rather dangerously. But she is excited. So was I by the end.

This was just a quick visit tacked on the end of a few days rest in Taormina...which Barbara and I last visited in '75 I think, with about 500 Sunday Times Wine Clubbers off a boat. I remembered the views from back then... but not the wine.

Now that’s all changed, I'll be back much sooner ...and all should come with me. Sicily is now making wines we cannot refuse.

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