SICILIAN AROMAS

Breathe in the scents of southern Sicily on this full-day excursion from Ragusa. Your private chauffeur will meet you at your accommodation and drive you to a herb farm. Here, in this splendid natural setting, guests will relish Sicily’s authentic aromas while taking in views that stretch all the way to the cobalt-blue Mediterranean Sea. The estate has been successfully run for twenty years by a dedicated, hard-working family, driven by the ambition to keep alive the island’s traditional fragrances and flavours. Over 150 different varieties of medicinal, ornamental and culinary plants, including capers, sage, thyme, lavender, mint, santolina, helichrysum and rosemary, are lovingly and carefully cultivated in the garden and, as the owners set themselves new challenges, these will soon be joined by tropical plants and endemic Sicilian herbs which are today threatened with extinction. A member of staff will greet you and lead you on an entertaining and informative visit to the farm’s scented pathways. Later, under a passion flower pergola, feast your senses on a delicious light lunch made with fresh ingredients and seasoned with the farm’s aromatic herbs.

A one-hour drive will then bring you to one of Sicily’s most revered wineries. Founded by three school friends in 1980, this estate is largely responsible for the oenological Renaissance of the Cerasuolo di Vittoria wine producing region, the only DOCG designated territory in Sicily. The owners pride themselves on having adopted biodynamic farming methods which, paired with the resurrection of ancient ageing techniques, have contributed to the fame and quality of the estate’s wines. Indeed fascinated by age-old wine production processes, the founders decided to replace a portion of their barrels with amphorae, clay jars that were used to ferment wine hundreds of years ago by Sicily’s ancient Greek settlers. This forward-thinking – and at the same time backward-looking – approach has rewarded the estate with elegant, perfectly balanced wines. Thirty hectares of vineyards are planted with native and international grape varieties of Grillo, Grecanico, Inzolia, Frappato, Nero d’Avola and Merlot and turned into exquisite white and red wines. Here, on a tour of the cellar, guests will learn about the history of wine in Sicily, then sit down to a guided tasting.

In the afternoon your private chauffeur will drive you back to your accommodation in Ragusa.