Love and Wine in Sicily
Feudo Montoni is one of those middle-of-nowhere Sicilian places that quietly takes your breath away.
It sits at 1,600 feet above sea level amid rolling hills that have served as an Italian breadbasket and sheep grazing area for millenia.
Once part of a sharecropping lands that belonged to the Church, the farm and its baglio came into the hands of Fabio Sireci’s enterprising grandfather in the late 19th century.
There was, of course, wine. But it didn’t excel until this century after Sireci took over. And the wines didn’t really reach their peak until Fabio met Melissa Muller, a New York downtown Italian restaurateur (with Sicilian roots) who came to Montoni 11 years ago whilst doing cookbook research for her book Sicily: Recipes Rooted in Tradition.
Now a married couple with two young sons, the pair have carved out a life in the deepest of Sicily: working organically, growing wheat, olives and grapes and rare varieties of tomatoes and peppers, and experimenting with recipes with wild plants and local products.
It’s a story of love, wine and nature that’s an antidote to our times and the White-lotusing of everything. Even Sicily.
Read Part 1 and Part 2 of the latest Robert Camuto Meets…