Wine route
Strada del Vino Marsala e Pantelleria
3 days · 4 stops
Open the driveSicily · DOC
Pantelleria DOC One Island, One Grape, and Italy's Great Sun-Dried Sweet Wine
A single island, a single grape, and vines grown in pits dug against the wind. Pantelleria lies closer to Tunisia than to Sicily. Its denomination covers the whole island, and every wine is made from Zibibbo. The sun-dried Passito di Pantelleria is the wine that made its name.
13
Wines live now
£10-£95
Price range today
8
UK retailers
Decode the label
What the label tells you
One word on the front changes the ageing, the strength and the price.
On the label
Pantelleria Bianco & Zibibbo
the dry turn of a sweet island
Zibibbo with other whites allowed in the Bianco
10% minimum alcohol, the lightest tier
The modern reading: Zibibbo fermented dry, grape-skin perfume over a saline volcanic core.
In stock from £22.60 See the 1 bottle ↓On the label
Moscato di Pantelleria
the fresh sweet one
100% Zibibbo (Moscato di Alessandria)
15% total, part left as sweetness
Sweet without drying: fresh Zibibbo held back mid-ferment, orange blossom and green grape in a light frame.
In stock from £23.20 See the 2 bottles ↓On the label
Passito di Pantelleria
the island's monument
Sun-dried Zibibbo, raisined on the island
20% total, at least 14% fermented
Grapes raisined in the August sun before pressing: apricot, date and candied orange at dessert-wine depth.
In stock from £9.61 See the 7 bottles ↓The boundary
Where it is
Everything on this page, the estates, the bottles, the sub-zones, sits inside this line.
Pantelleria DOC zone
Wine route in the zoneOutside the zone
One black volcanic island between Sicily and Tunisia: Pantelleria, province of Trapani, closer to the African coast than the Sicilian. Zibibbo grows as low alberello bushes sunk into hollows behind dry-stone walls, a system so particular UNESCO listed it in 2014. The August sun that dries the grapes for Passito on open racks is the same engine that made the island a garden of capers and sultanas.
Inside the zone
1
Island
2014
UNESCO alberello listing
10 t/ha
Maximum yield
8
Permitted styles
Towns worth knowing
Pantelleria
Khamma
Scauri
The contrade keep Arabic names, Khamma to Bukkuram: eleven centuries of the island's layered story in its vineyard addresses.
In the glass
What it tastes like, by style
One profile at a time, never blended into a single set of bars.
Raisin
Apricot
Honey
Orange
Orange blossom
Citrusy fruit
Peach
The disciplinare
The rules that define it
The same table on every denomination page, straight from the production rules.
Grape & its role
Share of the blend
050100%
Zibibbo (Moscato di Alessandria)Alone in every sweet tier; the Bianco may add other island whites100%Solid means the rules demand it. Striped means optional, up to that amount. The words on the right say the same rule.
One grape rules the whole island Zibibbo, the Moscato di Alessandria, in eight permitted forms from dry to liquoroso.
The bush vine here is UNESCO heritage the vite ad alberello of Pantelleria, dug into hollows against the wind, was listed in 2014.
Passito means real drying 20% total strength with at least 14% fermented; the rest stays as the sun's sugar.
10 tonnes per hectare on paper the terraces and the wind keep real yields far below the legal cap.
Africa is closer than Sicily the zone is one volcanic island, nearer the Tunisian coast than the Sicilian.
Ageing and alcohol minimums per tier are in the label guide above.
Editor's cellar
Bottles to try, and what Pantelleria costs in the UK
Every live Pantelleria listing, cheapest to dearest
10 wines · 8 retailers
By style, today
Passito
from £9.61
Live prices, compared across 8 UK retailers.
Vintage provenance
Why there is no vintage chart
No denomination-wide vintage chart is published for Pantelleria. With a single grape on a single island and most of the crop dried in the sun before pressing, quality is tracked producer by producer rather than through a maintained annata table.
Sun does the work every year: drink Moscato and the dry whites young, cellar Passito for a decade without fear.
What to check instead
The producer: quality here is tracked estate by estate rather than year by year.
How Pantelleria is made
Every Pantelleria DOC wine is made from Zibibbo. That is the grape catalogued as Moscato di Alessandria. No blending partner is permitted. The vines are trained as alberello pantesco. Each plant sits low in a hollow dug into the ground. That shelters it from wind, which arrives from five directions. It also helps the vine catch moisture on an island that gets only around 400 millimetres of rain a year. The denomination runs to eight types. Moscato di Pantelleria requires a minimum of 15 per cent alcohol, of which at least 11 must be fermented. Passito di Pantelleria requires 20 per cent, of which at least 14 must be fermented. Liquoroso versions climb to 21 and 22 per cent. The dry Bianco sits at 11.5.
In depth
Pantelleria is a volcanic island in the Strait of Sicily. On paper it belongs to the province of Trapani. In truth it sits closer to Africa than to Palermo. Zibibbo is said to have arrived with Arab rule, and the island has grown little else of note since. The denomination covers the entire island and admits only that one grape. That makes it one of the most tightly drawn denominations in Italy.
The way the vines are grown is what sets it apart. Wind and drought make normal training impossible. So each vine is grown as a low bush, inside a hollow scooped roughly 20 centimetres into the ground. The pit keeps the plant below the wind line. It also traps what little moisture condenses overnight. In November 2014 UNESCO added the practice, known as alberello pantesco, to its register of intangible cultural heritage. It was the first farming technique anywhere in the world to receive that recognition. The work is still done by hand, on terraces that no machine could reach.
The wines divide cleanly. The dry and lightly sparkling Bianco shows the floral, citrus-peel side of the grape. Moscato di Pantelleria is sweet, but fermented. Passito di Pantelleria is the island's calling card. Its grapes are laid out in the sun until they shrivel. They are then pressed into something amber, dense and scented with dried apricot and honey. Donnafugata's Ben Ryé did most to carry that style to an international audience. The island now trades on a reputation built almost entirely on sweet wine.
On the table
What to eat with Pantelleria
The home country leads; global pairings that genuinely work follow.
In-depth guide
Pantelleria, answered
Zibibbo, and only Zibibbo. The grape is catalogued internationally as Moscato of Alexandria. On the island itself it is also called Moscato di Pantelleria. The denomination permits no blending partner, which is unusual in Italian wine law. So every bottle carrying the name comes from that single variety, from the dry Bianco to the richest Passito.
Both are sweet, but they are made differently and sit at different strengths. Moscato di Pantelleria requires a minimum of 15 per cent alcohol, of which at least 11 per cent must be fermented. Passito di Pantelleria requires a minimum of 20 per cent, of which at least 14 per cent must be fermented. The Passito is made from grapes dried in the sun until they shrivel, which concentrates both sugar and aroma.
It is the traditional low bush-vine training used across Pantelleria. Each plant sits in a hollow dug about 20 centimetres into the ground. The pit shelters the vine from wind arriving from five named directions. It also helps the vine catch scarce moisture, on an island receiving roughly 400 millimetres of rain a year. UNESCO added the practice to its intangible cultural heritage register in November 2014. It was the first farming technique to be listed.
Eight. They are Moscato di Pantelleria, Passito di Pantelleria, Moscato liquoroso, Moscato spumante, Moscato dorato, Passito liquoroso and Zibibbo dolce. The eighth is a dry Bianco, which also comes in a lightly sparkling frizzante version. Minimum alcohol runs from 11.5 per cent for the Bianco up to 22 per cent for the Passito liquoroso. That gives some idea of the range hiding behind one grape.
No, though the sweet wines are what the island is known for. The denomination includes a dry Bianco and a frizzante version, both at a minimum of 11.5 per cent alcohol. Both show Zibibbo's floral and citrus-peel character, with no sweetness left. Far less of them is exported than of the Passito, so they are easier to find on the island than off it.
Explore more Sicily
Same region only: the denominations Pantelleria drinkers reach for next.
