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 yracuse has always ranked among the Sicilian provinces with wines of outstanding reputations because of their nobility and premium qualities. Among those wines, some of which are made in communes that in 1926 were combined to form the province of Ragusa but that historically are linked to Syracuse, is the Moscato di Siracusa.The noted historian and enologist Saverio Landolina Nava (1743-1814) identified the wine with the Syracusan Pollio, which was made from the Biblia grape, which was said to have originated on Mount Biblini in Thrace and have been introduced on Sicily by Pollis, a legendary tyrant of the city at the time of the first Greek settlements on the island (8th-7th centuries BC). If what the fragment of the Latin historian Zenobius (1st century BC), which is the basis of Landolina Nava's hypothesis, says is true, the Moscato di Siracusa can be regarded as the most ancient wine on Sicily. However, despite its centuries-old reputation, the wine has vanished. In the 19th century, a large quantity of liqueur wine was sold throughout the world under the Moscato di Siracusa label but in most cases the wine had nothing whatsoever to do with Sicily. The sellers fraudulently decked out their bottles with the name to give their product a touch of class it did not deserve. However, production of the real wine must have continued since two Moscati di Siracusa received awards at the 1900 Paris Exposition. But in 1933, when the first Exhibition-Market of Typical Italian Wines was held, there was no Moscato di Siracusa entry. Since 1983, the year when the Moscato was recognized as a DOC wine, only half a hectare has been inscribed in the official vineyard album and no output has been reported for it. Wine lovers can only hope that one day this outstanding product of the soil of Sicily will one day reappear in the cellars and on the tables of those who appreciate fine beverages. For the moment, all that is left is the memory.
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Consorzio Tutela Vini del Siracusano
Via S. Alessandra, 5
96019 Rosolini (SR)
ITALY
phone: (+39) 0931/857068
fax: (+39) 0931/857333
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