INSOLIA TERRE SICILIANE IGT "CARINDA" Assuli

The vine variety brought by the great navigators

Vine variety with Norman origins. There are hardly any documents or scientific evidence on its history, but it is the protagonist of the oral tradition. It is conceivable that the Norman populations introduced it by taking vine varieties from Greece, an aspect that can be partly sustained considering recent genetic studies that assimilate the variety to the Greeks "Rhoditis" and "Sideritis". So, a passage from Greece but perhaps not by the Greek colonists, so by navigators such as the Normans who had in-depth exchanges with the Sicilian population. It seems we can confirm that Sicily was the home of the variety. Outside Sicily, the vine variety is known above all as Ansonica (name with which it is present in the General Register of Vine Varieties since 1970) even if this name is also found today in Sicily. Insolia is one of the most varietal vines in all of Sicily and begins to be increasingly vinified in purity to underline its quality (unlike previous uses). For centuries the vine has also been used as a table grape, while today it is practically used only for winemaking. Always in a more recent past, the vine variety has been used in the production of Marsala and Vermuth, which is still in progress but extremely marginal compared to the largely primary use for vinification.