White Grape · Sicily

Catarratto

For a century Catarratto filled Sicily's tanks and Marsala's cellars in near-anonymity; today the island's most-planted grape is the one to watch, turning thick-skinned, sun-loving fruit into saline, almond-edged whites with a straight face and a long finish.

Catarratto is the white grape that built Sicily, for generations the island's most-planted vine and the workhorse behind oceans of Marsala. Grown across Trapani, Palermo and Agrigento, it has shed its bulk-wine past to make saline, almond-scented dry whites, and it lends body to the high whites of Etna Bianco DOC.

11
Bottles live now
8
UK retailers

Also known as

Same grape, many labels

The old workhorse

Catarratto Bianco Comune

The heavily bloomed, thicker-skinned biotype that once carpeted western Sicily and fed the Marsala trade.

The quality clone

Catarratto Bianco Lucido

A near-waxless mutation with a polished, shiny skin, now favoured for fresh single-variety whites.

On the label

Lucido

Growers increasingly print Lucido on its own, as if it were the wine's name rather than a biotype of Catarratto.

The anchor fact: Comune and Lucido are two registered biotypes of one grape, not two varieties; lucido, meaning shiny, describes a skin with almost no bloom.

Taste · Where it sits

What it’s actually like in the glass

Forget scores out of five. Here’s Catarratto described against grapes you already know.

BodySun-fed but trim
LightFull

Fuller than a lean Vermentino, lighter than an oaked Fiano; Trapani's heat builds flesh that Catarratto's saline grip keeps from turning heavy.

TanninSkin-deep only
SoftGrippy

A white, so tannin is minimal; only Sicily's amber, skin-contact Catarrattos borrow grip from those famously thick, golden skins.

AciditySalt over sharpness
SoftZippy

Acidity is moderate rather than piercing, so the freshness comes from a briny, almond-skin bite instead of the lemon-cut of a high-acid Grecanico or Carricante.

Fruit & sweetnessDry, orchard-ripe
DrySweet

Almost always bone-dry, with ripe peach and yellow apple reading as fruit, not sugar; the sweeter face appears only in passito and old Marsala.

Key flavours

Almond
The grape's fingerprint: a bitter-almond note from those thick Sicilian skins, the same nutty thread that runs through Marsala.
Citrusy fruit
Not sharp lemon zest but a rounder, sun-warmed citrus, closer to blood-orange pith than the green-lime cut of cooler whites.
Peach
Ripe yellow peach from full western-Sicily ripening, fleshy enough to read as body rather than a top-note.
Apple
Golden, orchard-ripe apple rather than crisp green, a marker of Catarratto grown on warm calcareous hills.
Orange blossom
A soft Mediterranean floral lift, the wildflower and citrus-blossom side the Italians call fiori di campo.
Honey
Only in old-vine and hill Lucido bottlings with a few years on them, where surmaturation turns the fruit waxy and honeyed.
Racy · Crisp Round · Soft Light-bodied Bold · Full Glera Chardonnay Pinot Grigio Vermentino Garganega Cortese
Catarratto

The map

Catarratto is medium-bodied, balanced acidity, mapped against other white grapes you can buy. The closer a grape sits, the more its weight and freshness resemble Catarratto.

Catarrattomedium-bodied, balanced acidity
Gleralighter, crisper
Chardonnaya close match
Pinot Grigiolighter, crisper
Vermentinolighter, crisper
Garganegalighter, crisper
Corteselighter, crisper

Is this for you?

An honest gut-check

Reach for it when…

A bold red that just works

  • You want a Sicilian white with texture and salinity, not just simple citrus zip
  • You are matching fried, briny or almond-tinged food and want the wine to echo it
  • You like backing a grape on the way up, at honest prices

Maybe skip it if…

You’re after something else tonight

  • You want racing, high-acid tension; a Grecanico or Carricante will feel sharper
  • You expect loud, aromatic fruit, because Catarratto stays discreet and savoury
  • You only drink reds, since this one belongs at the table, not the armchair

Serving guide

Pour it at its best

Serve at

10-12°C

Serve at 10-12C: too cold and the almond and saline notes go mute, too warm and the modest acidity sags.

Decant

No

No decant needed; a young Catarratto shows everything on pouring, so just give it a cold glass.

Glass

Chardonnay Glass

A broader white glass suits it, since the extra air lifts the peach and white-flower notes clear of the salinity.

Drink within

3-5 days

Most bottles are built for their first two or three years, when the fruit is brightest.

Cellar

Up to 5 years

Only the low-yield hill and old-vine Lucido bottlings reward five years, turning honeyed and mineral.

On the table

What to eat with Catarratto

Start with the home-table matches that made the grape, then browse the full cuisine library.

Arancini

Fried and golden

Arancini

The saline, almond-edged Catarratto slices through the fried shell and rich ragu or mozzarella centre far better than a soft, low-acid white.
Pesce spada alla Siciliana

Swordfish, Sicilian style

Pesce spada alla Siciliana

Capers, olives and tomato need a wine with weight and salt rather than sweetness; a Trapani Catarratto meets the sauce and stays savoury.
Cozze arraganate

Baked mussels

Cozze arraganate

Oregano-and-breadcrumb mussels mirror the grape's briny, herbal side, while its medium body copes with the garlic and oil.

Browse every pairing

Italian Italian
Fish and seafood 1 Risotto 1

Buy it · three to start with

Not sure which bottle? Start here

A curated trio across the price range, then every Catarratto on sale in the UK right now.

Entry · everyday

Catarratto Sicilia DOC 'Lucido'

Catarratto Sicilia DOC 'Lucido'

Sicilia

1 retailer

£13.50

View Wine

Why this one: Cusumano's Lucido is the benchmark introduction: unoaked, stainless-clean, all lemon, almond and salt for well under fifteen pounds.

The sweet spot

Baroni Di Pianogrillo Catarratto Lucido Terre Siciliane

Baroni Di Pianogrillo Catarratto Lucido Terre Siciliane

Terre Siciliane

1 retailer

£14.63

View Wine

Why this one: From the hills above Chiaramonte Gulfi, a single-estate Lucido with more grip and stony length, showing what lower yields do for the grape.

Special occasion

Contrada Zisola Catarratto Terre Siciliane

Contrada Zisola Catarratto Terre Siciliane

Terre Siciliane

1 retailer

£42.98

View Wine

Why this one: Mazzei's single-contrada Catarratto at Noto is the grape's serious face: textured, saline and built to gain honeyed depth over a few years.

11 bottles

View All Catarratto Wines

Where it grows

Where Catarratto grows in Sicily

Sicily wine region

Sicily

Volcanic Nerello on Etna's black terraces, sun-baked Nero d'Avola on the south-east coast, fortified Marsala in Trapani and UNESCO Zibibbo on Pantelleria: Sicily holds Italy's widest single-region wine map.

373 wines · 31 denominations
Explore the Sicily guide

The terroir

Catarratto grows across Sicily, but where it sits decides what it becomes.

Western plains

Trapani and Marsala

Warm and generous, traditionally the base of Marsala; the historic heartland where salinity and almond run deepest.

Interior hills

Higher Sicilia DOC sites

Cooler nights and calcareous soils give paler, tenser dry whites with more mineral cut.

Etna's slopes

Etna Bianco DOC

A minority partner to Carricante on volcanic soil, lending flesh to one of Italy's most electric whites.

Editorial

About Catarratto

Catarratto has grown in Sicily since at least the Middle Ages, and DNA profiling has since placed it as a natural cross of Garganega, the Soave grape, and the Calabrian variety Mantonico Bianco. That parentage helps explain its texture and its knack for holding fruit under a hot sun. For much of the twentieth century it covered more than sixty per cent of the Sicilian vineyard, most of it destined for blends with Nero d'Avola, for distillation, or for the fortified cellars of Marsala.

For much of the twentieth century, more than sixty per cent of every vine in Sicily was Catarratto.

Quattrocalici, L'Atlante dei Vitigni

The variety splits into two registered biotypes. Catarratto Bianco Comune carries a heavy bloom, or pruina, on a thicker skin; Catarratto Bianco Lucido has a thinner, almost waxless skin that looks polished, which is where the name lucido, meaning shiny, comes from. Growers increasingly favour Lucido for quality wine, and many labels now print Lucido as if it were the wine's own name.

Lower yields and cooler, higher sites have rewritten Catarratto's reputation. From the calcareous hills of Trapani it now gives pale, saline whites scented with white flowers, lemon, peach and its signature bitter almond, with old-vine bottlings turning honeyed and mineral with age. On Carricante's volcanic slopes it is a permitted minority partner in Etna Bianco DOC, adding flesh to that wine's high-tension frame, much as Grillo once did for Marsala further west. Today it remains the most-planted grape of any colour on the island.

Good to know

Frequently asked

Catarratto makes a dry, medium-bodied white with a briny, almost salty character and a signature bitter-almond note. Expect white flowers, lemon, ripe peach and yellow apple, with mineral length rather than loud, aromatic fruit.

Almost all Catarratto is bone-dry. Its ripe peach and apple flavours can read as fruity, but the sugar is fully fermented; sweet versions exist only as passito wines and as a base for some styles of Marsala.

They are two biotypes of the same grape, not different varieties. Catarratto Bianco Comune has a thicker, heavily bloomed skin, while Catarratto Bianco Lucido has a thinner, near-waxless skin that looks polished, and it is now the clone growers prefer for quality dry whites.

Catarratto shines with Sicilian seafood and fried food. Its salinity and weight handle arancini, pesce spada alla Siciliana and baked mussels, while richer, oak-touched bottlings suit roast chicken or fish in an almond sauce.

Yes. Catarratto has long been one of the main white grapes behind Marsala, alongside Grillo and Inzolia, and for centuries much of Sicily's crop went to the fortified-wine and blending trade before the grape's modern revival as a dry white.

Catarratto is essentially a Sicilian grape, concentrated in the western provinces of Trapani, Palermo and Agrigento. It is the most-planted grape of any colour on the island and Italy's second-most-planted white variety.

Explore by style

Wine styles made from Catarratto

Jump to the editorial guide for each style this grape turns up in.

Keep exploring

More white grapes

Chardonnay

Chardonnay is a white grape with a clear Italian role: Franciacorta DOCG and Alta Langa DOCG include it in metodo classico sparkling wines, while Sicilia DOC gives it a warmer still-wine voice.

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