Noto DOC

The Baroque heart of southeastern Sicily — the Val di Noto UNESCO heritage zone in Syracuse province, one of the hottest and driest corners of Italy. Noto produces two wines of genuine distinction: Moscato di Noto and the island’s most intense expressions of Nero d’Avola.

The Terroir Blindingly white calcareous limestone soils that reflect intense sun and heat back onto the vines. The area receives very little rainfall and relies on the thick-skinned resilience of its native varieties. The heat is extreme even by Sicilian standards — grapes reach high sugar levels naturally, requiring careful management to retain acidity.

Moscato di Noto Both in a fresh, dry/off-dry style and in a passito (dried grape) version. More delicate and floral than Pantelleria’s Moscato — rose petal and white peach rather than the tropical intensity of Zibibbo. A rare and underappreciated wine.

Nero d’Avola Here the grape shows a wilder, more herbal and oxidative character than its western-Sicily counterparts — notes of capers, dried oregano, dried cherry, and leather. The limestone concentration gives it structure and length.

The Critical Take The Moscato di Noto passito is one of Sicily’s great obscure sweet wines. The Nero d’Avola from Pachino (within the Noto zone) is the grape’s most site-specific expression.

Rebuilt in One Style The whole of the Val di Noto was flattened by the earthquake of 1693, and the towns were rebuilt from nothing over the following decades in a single, coherent late Baroque. That is why Noto, Modica, Ragusa and Scicli look the way they do, and why UNESCO inscribed eight of them together: the zone is a rare case of an entire region rebuilt at once, to one taste, in one honey-coloured local limestone. The same limestone is under the vines.

Pachino The southern tip of the zone, around Pachino and Portopalo, is the hottest and driest vineyard land in Italy and the historical heartland of the grape. For most of the twentieth century its wine went north in tankers to strengthen thin reds in Piedmont and beyond — the same trade that ran out of Puglia and Calabria — and the estates bottling site-specific Pachino wine today are working ground that was valued by degree of alcohol within living memory.

Two Moscatos, Two Islands Apart Noto’s Moscato is Moscato Bianco; Pantelleria’s is Zibibbo, a different and much more tropical variety. Confusing the two is the commonest mistake made about Sicilian sweet wine, and Noto’s is the more delicate and the harder to find.

At the Table Tuna and swordfish from the Portopalo boats, caponata, roast lamb, ragusano cheese, and the Pachino tomato with everything. The red at 16–17°C, the Moscato passito at 12–14°C.

Benchmark Producers Planeta (Santa Cecilia), Marabino, Zisola, Riofavara.