White Grape · Sicily

Zibibbo

The grape whose name means raisin, grown in pits dug against the wind on a volcanic island closer to Africa than to mainland Italy.

Zibibbo is the aromatic white grape of Sicily's far south. Science knows it as Muscat of Alexandria. It reaches its peak on Pantelleria, the volcanic island closer to Tunisia than to Palermo. There it yields both bone-dry whites and the amber passito wines that made the island's name.

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Denominations

Also known as

Same grape, many labels

Zibibbo

The Sicilian name, from the Arabic zabib meaning raisin. Used across the island and on most Pantelleria labels.

Moscato di Alessandria

The Italian catalogue name, pointing at Alexandria in Egypt as the variety's supposed cradle.

Muscat of Alexandria

The international prime name used by the Vitis International Variety Catalogue, which registers Greece as the country of origin.

Moscato di Pantelleria

Used on the island itself, where it doubles as the denomination name for the sweet wines.

Moscatellone

An older Italian synonym reflecting the variety's large berries and table-grape past.

The anchor fact: Zibibbo, Moscato di Alessandria and Muscat of Alexandria are one grape with more than 300 recorded synonyms; the name on the label tells you where the producer is, not what style is in the bottle.

Taste · Where it sits

What it’s actually like in the glass

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

BodySun-weighted but not heavy
LightFull

Fuller than Grillo and rounder than Carricante, but nowhere near the density of a barrel-aged Fiano. Pantelleria's sun builds weight through ripeness rather than extract.

TanninEffectively absent
NoneGrippy

Even the skin-contact and passito versions stay soft, because the drying concentrates sugar and aroma rather than the phenolic grip you would get from an orange-wine Catarratto.

AcidityLow, propped up by salt
SoftRacy

Naturally lower in acid than Muscat Blanc a Petits Grains, its own parent. What stops the wine collapsing is Pantelleria's saline finish, not the acidity that carries Carricante or Grillo.

Fruit-sweetnessDry or frankly sweet, rarely between
Bone dryLusciously sweet

The variety works at both poles and is unconvincing in the middle. Producers either ferment it out bone dry, as in Lighea, or dry the grapes for passito; Moscato d'Asti's gentle off-dry register is not this grape's game.

Key flavours

Raisin
Not a flaw or a sign of over-ripeness here but the grape's founding character; the name Zibibbo comes from the Arabic for raisin, and sun-drying on Pantelleria makes it literal.
Orange blossom
The Muscat family marker, but heavier and more candied in Zibibbo than the delicate orange-flower lift of Moscato Bianco, because the berries ripen under far stronger sun.
Apricot
Arrives with the drying rather than the fresh fruit; in the passito it turns to dried apricot, which is why the wine reads richer than its sugar level alone suggests.
Honey
A texture as much as an aroma in Zibibbo, coating rather than sweetening. It shows in the passito long before it shows in the dry bottlings, where it stays a background hum.
Peach
The signature of the dry style, white-fleshed and firm rather than syrupy, and the clearest way to tell a dry Zibibbo from the passito on the nose alone.
Orange
Reads as candied peel and marmalade instead of fresh juice, a consequence of the thick amber-tinged skins the variety develops in Trapani's heat.
Almond
The Sicilian thread that ties the wine to the island's kitchen, surfacing on the finish of the passito and echoing the almond pastries it is traditionally poured alongside.
Racy · Crisp Round · Soft Light-bodied Bold · Full Chardonnay Glera Pinot Grigio Sauvignon Blanc Vermentino Pinot Bianco
Zibibbo

The map

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

Zibibbomedium-bodied, gentle acidity
Chardonnaycrisper
Gleralighter, far crisper
Pinot Grigiolighter, far crisper
Sauvignon Blanclighter, far crisper
Vermentinolighter, far crisper
Pinot Biancolighter, crisper

Is this for you?

An honest gut-check

Reach for it when…

A bold red that just works

  • You want a dessert wine with perfume rather than just sugar
  • You like aromatic whites and are curious what Muscat does without any sweetness
  • You are pairing blue cheese, almond pastries or dried fruit
  • You want a Sicilian bottle that tastes of somewhere specific

Maybe skip it if…

You’re after something else tonight

  • You want a high-acid, mineral white; Carricante or Grillo will serve you better
  • You find Muscat's grapey perfume overwhelming
  • You are after a food-neutral everyday white
  • You want something to cellar cheaply; the dry versions are best drunk young

Serving guide

Pour it at its best

Serve at

8-12°C

Too warm and the alcohol swamps the orange blossom; the passito in particular needs the chill to stay lifted.

Decant

No

No benefit. The aromatics are the point and decanting only blows them off.

Glass

Tulip Glass

A tulip narrows the rim enough to hold the Muscat perfume in without concentrating the alcohol.

Drink within

3-5 days

Dry Zibibbo is at its best in the first two years, while the passito rewards patience.

Cellar

3-20 years

Passito from a good vintage will hold for two decades; the dry wines will not, and there is nothing to gain by waiting.

On the table

What to eat with Zibibbo

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

Blue cheese

The classic

Blue cheese

Salt against sugar is the oldest argument in dessert-wine pairing, and Zibibbo passito has enough perfume to survive a mature Gorgonzola rather than being flattened by it.
Baklava

Follow the honey

Baklava

Both the wine and the pastry are built on honey, nuts and dried fruit, a shared Mediterranean vocabulary that runs straight back to the Arab influence on Sicilian cooking.
Chocolate cake

Only if it is dark

Chocolate cake

The candied-orange note in Zibibbo does the work here, echoing the orange that Sicilian bakers have always put with dark chocolate; milk chocolate would smother the wine.

Browse every pairing

International International
Cheese 1 Desserts 1
Lebanese Lebanese
Desserts 1

Buy it · three to start with

Not sure which bottle? Start here

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

Entry · everyday

Orestiadi Vini Zibibbo

Orestiadi Vini Zibibbo

Sicilia

2 retailers

£14.00

View Wine

Why this one: The cheapest honest introduction to the dry style, and the quickest way to learn that Zibibbo does not have to be sweet.

The sweet spot

Lighea Zibibbo

Lighea Zibibbo

Sicilia

3 retailers

£18.90

View Wine

Why this one: Lighea is the benchmark dry Zibibbo, and the reference point most Sicilian producers are measured against.

Special occasion

Ben Ryé

Ben Ryé

Pantelleria

3 retailers

£39.00

View Wine

Why this one: Ben Rye is the passito that made Pantelleria's modern reputation, made from grapes dried on the island in the sun.

12 of 33 bottles

Denominations

Where it earns a name on the label

The appellations where Zibibbo plays a starring role.

PantelleriaDOC

Where it grows

Where Zibibbo 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.

905 wines · 31 denominations
Explore the Sicily guide

The terroir

Zibibbo changes character with almost nothing but sunlight and wind, which is why the same grape reads as a crisp aperitivo white on the Trapani coast and as a dense amber dessert wine forty miles offshore.

Pantelleria

Volcanic island, closer to Tunisia than Palermo

Passito and dry whites of real concentration, from bush vines set in pits against the wind

Trapani and the western coast

Mainland Sicily

Lighter, fresher dry whites made for the table rather than the cellar

Erice

Higher ground above Trapani

Cooler nights give a more restrained, floral reading of the same grape

Editorial

About Zibibbo

Zibibbo carries one of the clearest name trails in Italian wine. The word comes from the Arabic zabib, meaning raisin. That is what it was grown for, long before anyone bottled it. Its international name, Muscat of Alexandria, points at Egypt. The Vitis International Variety Catalogue, though, registers Greece as the origin. It gives the parentage as Heptakilo crossed with Muscat Blanc a Petits Grains. Three names, three geographies, one grape.

The name comes from the Arabic for raisin, and on Pantelleria the grapes really are dried in the sun before they ever reach a press.

On the origin of Zibibbo

Modern Zibibbo is overwhelmingly a Sicilian story. It centres on Trapani, Palermo and Agrigento, and above all on Pantelleria. The vine copes with drought and is happiest on volcanic and sandy soils, so it took well to an island with little rain and much wind. There the vines grow as alberello pantesco. Each plant sits low in a hollow dug roughly 20 centimetres into the ground. The pit shelters it from the wind and catches what moisture the night gives up. UNESCO listed the practice as intangible cultural heritage in November 2014. It was the first agricultural technique anywhere to be recognised.

In the glass the grape is unmistakable. Dry bottlings are golden, and they smell of orange blossom, peach and citrus peel. They carry real weight but very little tannin. The passito wines come from grapes dried in the sun. They turn amber and concentrate into apricot, honey and candied orange, with a salty lift that keeps them from cloying. Among Italy's sweet wines Zibibbo is the most overtly perfumed. It sits at the opposite pole from the taut, mineral Carricante of Etna.

It appears in the Pantelleria, Erice and Sicilia denominations. It now sits alongside Grillo and Catarratto in the revival of serious Sicilian white wine. Donnafugata did most to build its modern reputation, with both a dry Zibibbo and the passito Ben Rye. For the volcanic counterpart in red, see Nerello Mascalese. Our guide to Etna Bianco covers the island's other volcanic white.

Good to know

Frequently asked

Yes. Zibibbo is the Sicilian name for the variety catalogued internationally as Muscat of Alexandria. In Italy it is also known as Moscato di Alessandria and Moscatellone. On Pantelleria you will also see it labelled Moscato di Pantelleria. They are all the same grape. The name on the bottle usually tells you where the producer is standing, rather than what is in the glass.

No, and this is the most common misunderstanding. Zibibbo makes bone-dry whites as readily as it makes sweet ones. The dry versions are golden, aromatic and low in tannin. They keep the same orange-blossom perfume but have no residual sugar. The famous passito wines are sweet because the grapes are dried in the sun before pressing. The variety itself does not have to be sweet.

It comes from the Arabic zabib, meaning raisin or dried grape. The name reflects how the variety was used for centuries around the Mediterranean. It was a table and drying grape rather than purely a wine grape. That history still shows in the modern passito wines of Pantelleria, where the grapes are laid out to dry before fermentation.

It is the traditional low bush-vine training used on Pantelleria. Each plant sits in a hollow dug about 20 centimetres into the ground. The pit shelters the vine from the island's constant wind and helps it capture scarce moisture. UNESCO inscribed the practice on its register of intangible cultural heritage in November 2014. It was the first agricultural practice to receive that recognition.

Serve it cold, between 8 and 12 degrees. Keep the dry versions at the cooler end and the passito slightly warmer, so the aromas open. Neither style needs decanting. A tulip glass suits both. It concentrates the orange blossom and apricot without letting the alcohol dominate. Pour the sweet version in small measures, because it is rich enough that a little goes a long way.

Blue cheese is the classic partner, because the wine's sweetness balances the salt. It also works with almond-based pastries, dried fruit and dark chocolate. The key is to make sure the wine is sweeter than the dish. If it is not, the fruit falls away and only the alcohol remains. Avoid anything sharply acidic.

Explore by style

Wine styles made from Zibibbo

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

Keep exploring

More white grapes