Zibibbo

Zibibbo is the Sicilian name for Muscat of Alexandria, and the word comes from the Arabic zabib, meaning raisin — which is precisely what the grape is used for on Pantelleria, the volcanic island closer to Tunisia than to Sicily where it reaches its fullest expression.

The growing conditions there are brutal and have shaped a unique viticulture. Pantelleria is swept by constant wind, so the vines are grown in shallow hollows dug into the black volcanic soil, each plant sitting below ground level in its own basin, pruned low and trained along the earth. The technique is called alberello pantesco and UNESCO has recognised it as intangible cultural heritage.

The grapes are picked and laid out on mats to dry in the sun, concentrating sugar and flavour, then fermented to make Passito di Pantelleria: deep amber, intensely sweet, tasting of dried apricot, fig, honey, orange peel and candied citrus, with the musky floral signature that the whole Muscat family carries.

Dry Zibibbo is also made, and increasingly well. It is aromatic, faintly bitter, often with real salinity from the volcanic soils and the sea air, and it is a far more interesting dry Muscat than most.

Under its other names the same variety is grown widely and to less exalted purpose — much of it for raisins, and in South Africa as Hanepoot for fortified wine. Muscat of Alexandria is also one of the parents of Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains' many offspring, and appears throughout the Mediterranean.

The alberello pantesco — the vine grown in a hollow scooped out of the volcanic soil, pruned low and trained along the ground — is the only way viticulture works on Pantelleria, where the wind is constant and strong enough to strip a conventionally trained vine. UNESCO recognised the practice as intangible cultural heritage in 2014.

The island's production is tiny and falling. Terracing and hand-harvesting on volcanic slopes cannot be mechanised, the population has declined, and the economics are marginal even at the prices the wines command.

Dry Zibibbo is the more recent development and the more surprising one. Picked earlier and fermented cool, it gives an aromatic white with real salinity and a faintly bitter finish, and it is a considerably more interesting dry Muscat than the variety's reputation would suggest. It is now made across Sicily as well as on the island.