Marabino

Marabino is a pioneering estate in the Noto DOC, in the extreme south-east of Sicily, one of Italy’s most ancient wine regions. It works the blinding white limestone of the Val di Noto with biodynamic farming and focuses on native varieties, above all Nero d’Avola and Moscato Bianco.

Its Nero d’Avola, grown on white calcareous soils at altitude, defies the grape’s reputation for heaviness: fresh, precise and deeply mineral, with an acidity more usual in central Italy. Its Moscato di Noto is equally serious, rich yet nervy.

“Muscatedda” shatters the stereotype of Moscato as sweet and cloying. It explodes with the grape’s classic perfume of jasmine, orange blossom and apricot, but beneath it lies sea salt, wild fennel and sun-baked Mediterranean scrub. On the palate it is bone dry and razor-sharp, with a crunchy, saline finish that lingers for minutes, a radical coastal white for raw seafood, sea urchin or spiced dishes.