Old school New England 92 - Scanorama

Juggling act: Students beeline for
Chez Van, where Madame Van
(above) cooks her thread-thin Lan-
Follow the lava brick road: The
SS120 runs through the Mount
Etna wine region
the volcano, with a farm, cooking school
and row upon row of vines surrounded by
arid hills and the odd windmill. For 180
years, the Tascas have lived off the land.
And Giuseppe, who has the air of a laidback
professor with his unkempt beard
and wavy hair, can’t hide his passion.
“Have you tried our white from Capofaro?
It’s delicious. It comes from Salina,
the island where they filmed Il Postino,”
he says.
Over lunch he serves a chardonnaybased
sparkling wine made on the premises.
The bubbly is being poured in part
to welcome guests, but also to celebrate
Tasca being named “2012 Winery of the
Year” by Italy’s Gambero Rosso wine
guide. The recognition comes at a time
when the Tasca family is investing both
money and manpower in Sicily’s indigenous
varietals, from a white wine made
with the grillo grape on Mozia, an island
off Marsala, to reds from nero d’Avola
grown on the estate. From Salina to Monreale
south of Palermo, Giuseppe and Al -
berto oversee a winemaking dy nasty that
is determined to change how out sid ers
view the island.
“In the 1800s, Sicily was known mostly
for Marsala,” Alberto says. “There was
also great interest in making still wines
but over time things went downhill. Phylloxera
[the root-feeding aphid] hit and
people started to emigrate. By the 1950s
producers focused on high yields with the
latest equipment and quality dropped.
Sicily got stuck with the reputation as a
maker of bulk wine used for blending in
other wines.”
Today, the Tascas’ mission is to show
wine drinkers that the island is more than
just nero d’Avola, the darling of Sicilian
winemakers. For a long time the brothers
had the nagging sensation that something
was missing. Then, during a visit to
Etna in the 1990s, Giuseppe witnessed
Buried treasure: Frank
Cornelissen tends to the
amphorae in his garage
firsthand an eruption that made a lasting
impression on him.
“It was better than any fireworks show
I’d ever seen. I felt an attraction to the
place. It feels like the middle of nowhere
and yet it has this strange appeal.” The
decision to go ahead and acquire vineyards
on the volcano’s northern slope was
made easier since, with the right care, the
dominant local grape, nerello mascalese,
could hold its own against the mighty
French grapes of cabernet, merlot and
pinot noir.
72 DECEMBER 2011/JANUARY 2012 SCANORAMA
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