Sicily

For a long time Sicily made large volumes of everyday wine, much of it sold under the IGP; the promotion of the island-wide Sicilia DOC has pushed wine bottled at DOC level to almost 40 per cent of production. In 2022 it ranked fourth among Italian regions with 5.9 million hectolitres. Its signature grapes are the red Nero d'Avola and the white Grillo, with Frappato, Nerello Mascalese on Etna, Catarratto and Zibibbo among the others. Marsala, the fortified wine, took its modern form after the English merchant John Woodhouse began shipping it in 1773.

The island has one DOCG, Cerasuolo di Vittoria in the south-east, blending Nero d'Avola and Frappato, along with 23 DOCs and six IGPs.