Sambuca di Sicilia DOC

Sambuca di Sicilia is a DOC appellation located in Sicily. The production zone lies between the municipalities of Menfi, Sambuca, and Sciacca (in the province of Agrigento), covering a large area of hill country in south-western Sicily.

Grape Varieties The DOC regulations allow for the production of both white and red/rosé wines:

• White Wines: Must be produced from a minimum of 50% Ansonica, with the remainder allowed to be Chardonnay and/or Grecanico.
• Red & Rosé Wines: Must be based on a minimum of 50% Nero d’Avola, blended with authorized varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese, Merlot, and Syrah.

The Terroir The vineyards in this hilly region are planted on soils mostly dating back to the Tertiary period. The soils are characterized by a clayey-sandy composition, featuring intercalations of conglomerate and chalk.

Lake Arancio The feature that distinguishes the zone from its neighbours is artificial. Lake Arancio is a reservoir created in the 1950s by damming the Carboj, and it sits in the middle of the appellation. It moderates temperatures in a district that would otherwise be punishingly hot, lifts humidity slightly through the summer, and makes irrigation possible in a part of Sicily where drought stress is the limiting factor most years. Vineyards around the lake sit at 200–400 metres, high enough for genuinely cool nights.

Ansonica The white grape the DOC is built on deserves naming properly: Ansonica is the same variety as Inzolia, one of the historic Sicilian whites and a traditional component of Marsala. It gives moderate acidity, ripe stone fruit and a nutty, faintly bitter finish, and it needs picking early and handling carefully or it turns flabby. Grecanico and Chardonnay are permitted alongside it, and in practice most estates lean on them for the acidity Ansonica lacks.

The Critical Take Sambuca di Sicilia is a small denomination overshadowed by the neighbouring Menfi DOC and by the island-wide Sicilia DOC, and very little is bottled under its own name. The zone is capable — the altitude and the lake give it real advantages over most of western Sicily — but it has almost no identity in the market, and the fruit grown here mostly leaves under other labels. Judge by the estate rather than by the appellation.

At the Table Western Sicilian cooking: couscous alla trapanese, grilled fish, caponata and pasta with sardines for the whites; grilled lamb and aubergine for the Nero d’Avola. Serve the whites at 10–12°C and the reds cool, at 15–16°C.

Benchmark Producers Planeta, Feudo Arancio, Di Prima, Cellaro.