Sicily’s Best Kept Secret Is This White Wine

If you can't make it to Italy this summer, pick up a bottle of Grillo.

A good glass of Grillo wine can transport you to the sandy shores of Sicily, no matter where you drink it. This lesser-known Sicilian white wine is becoming more readily available on wine lists around the world with some truly spectacular expressions being produced; here's everything you need to know about your soon-to-be favorite white wine.

What is Grillo wine?

Grillo is a zippy white wine produced using the Grillo grape. While it might be best known for its role as a blending grape in Marsala, a Sicilian fortified wine that is great for both drinking and cooking, more producers are making excellent single-varietal wines with Grillo. Grillo wines can have lovely golden hues with a rich mouthfeel.

Related: Why You Should Be Drinking More Wine from Sicily and Puglia

Where does Grillo come from?

Sicily is the perfect place to grow Grillo grapes for a few reasons. First, Grillo has a thicker skin than white grapes like Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon, which protects them from the sun and helps them to thrive in the hot, dry Mediterranean climate. Second, thanks to its unique geological composition, Sicily has some of the most fascinating soil compositions of any wine region. The island of Sicily is located right between two massive tectonic plates, the Euasian and African plates, whose constant collision, fracture, and overlap has helped form Siciliy’s countless microclimates and variegated soils over nearly 100 million years. While this complex geological make up is one reason why Sicily is breathtaking to visit — you can climb an active volcano and see aquatic fossil remains at gorgeous beaches within just an hour of each other — you can taste the complexity in the wines too. The varying terroir from rich clay soils, limestone, chalk, silica, and sand mean that the same varietal grown in the exact same way from a vineyard just a few meters away might yield an entirely different wine.

Why you should drink Grillo

Grillo is delicious, but it’s also a total steal. Despite the quality of wines being made with this grape and Grillo’s potential to take on a few years of age, Grillo (and Sicilian wines in general), tend to be the most affordable bottles in the Italian aisle of your local wine store. “What excites me about Sicily right now is that this amazing region is beginning to gain global recognition for making excellent wines,” says Steph Heins, general manager at Carlotto in New York City. While Carlotto’s impressive wine list spans bottles from nearly all corners of Italy, some of the best deals on red and white wines can be found in the Sicilian sections. “We’re able to drink these fun, high quality bottles without breaking the budget, something that is becoming harder to do when looking at other popular Italian wine regions,” Heins adds.

Related: We're Dreaming of This Italian Cooking School

What does Grillo taste like?

Grillo is really an anything-goes white wine with options out there for lovers of citrusy Pinot Grigio or velvety white Burgundy. Expressions can range from round with notes of marzipan, mineral-driven and clean with white flowers like jasmine and lilac, or fruity with notes of tropical citrus depending on where the grapes were grown and how the wine was made. Much like Chardonnay, Grillo is a very impressionable grape, and winemaking choices can really influence the final result.

Grillo has an aromatic complexity that, not unlike Riesling or Gewürztraminer, can add a lot of depth to blends. “Grillo is a fantastic first step towards enjoying more aromatic wines,” says Lauren Hoey, wine director at Jupiter, a new Italian restaurant in New York’s Rockefeller Center. “It’s beautifully perfumed without being too overwhelming with fruity, herbal, and savory notes to balance out the more floral aromas.” Young vintages can be fresh and bright — perfect for a hot summer day — but Grillo can age, too. “I love how complex and textured it can become as it evolves with bottle age,” says Hoey.

5 Great Grillos to Try

For lovers of sparkling wine, this spritzy Brut Nature has the best of both worlds: classic sparkling wine acidity and rich tropical fruit flavors. This wine applies the French traditional method to Grillo grapes whose vines were planted over thirty years ago. It goes great with seafood, and has enough richness and body to stand up to fattier fishes like mackerel or tuna. Also try Bartoli’s “Integer,” a still wine made with limited intervention that excites and surprises.

Mortellito Calaincu Bianco

“This is a quintessentially summer wine with its bright citrus fruit and mineral-driven salinity,” says Hoey. A blend made with 90% Grillo and 10% Cataratto another underrated Sicilian white grape), this zesty wine is filled with notes of lemongrass, tangerine, and even a touch of tart apricot. This wine calls for ceviche or a punchy and bright summer salad.

Related: The 15 Best Wines from Sicily's Mount Etna to Buy Right Now

Feudo Montoni Grillo della Timpa Sicilia DOC

Perfumed with notes of white peach and honey suckle, this bottle of Grillo is the perfect one to crack open right before a meal, and let it take you from happy hour through dinner. Feudo Montoni is an organic winery that has let nature take the lead in their winemaking, working with less intervention from vineyard to bottle.

Planeta La Segreta Grillo

Family-owned Planeta has been making wine for generations. Their single-varietal Grillo features a complex array of fruit notes from concentrated cooked apples with bright citrus and green, minty herbal notes on the finish.

Donnafugata Sur Sur Grillo

Donnafugata’s Grillo is undeniably beautiful with gorgeous floral notes of white flower and orange blossom, melon, and white peach. This is the perfect summer wine to enjoy during aperitivo hour. 

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