PALMENTO: A SICILIAN WINE ODYSSEY

Inspired by a deep passion for wine, an Italian heritage, and a desire for a land a bit wilder than his home in the south of France, Robert V. Camuto set out to explore Sicily's emerging wine scene. But what he discovered during over a year of travel in the region was much more than a fascinating wine frontier. Chronicle of his journey from Palermo to Marsala, through Sicily's rugged interior to the heights of Mount Etna, Camuto captures the personalities, flavors, traditions, and natural riches that have made Italy's largest and oldest wine region the new discovery of the world traveler. In the island's very different wines, he finds an expression of humanity and nature --- and the space where the two merge into something more. Here, amidst wild landscapes, sumptuous markets, spectacular religious rituals, deliciously contrasting flavors, and the astonishing natural warmth of its inhabitants, Camuto paints a picture of Sicily at a brilliant moment in history. He takes readers into the anti-Mafia movement taking root in the former Mafia vineyards around the infamous Corleone; tells the stories of some of the island's most important landowning families; and introduces us to film and music celebrities and other foreigners drawn to Sicily's vineyards. His book considers wine as a powerful metaphor for the independent identity of this mythical land, which has shed its legacy of violence, corruption, and poverty to finally emerge, free at last, with its great soul intact.