Contemporary Catania wine lounge in the San Berillo neighbourhood with a modern aesthetic and rotating weekly by-the-glass list focused on Etna and Sicilian producers.
The list: Modern Catania wine lounge with 250 Italian labels; 20 by the glass rotating weekly; Etna DOC and Sicilia DOC prominently featured
Tip: One of Catania's newer and more design-led wine spaces; the courtyard is the main attraction for warm evenings. Etna Rosso by the glass with a charcuterie board is the standard order.
Address: Via Gabriele D'Annunzio 10, 95100 Catania, Italy, Sicily
Taormina hotel terrace lounge bar with panoramic Etna and Ionian coast views, offering Sicilian wine by the glass alongside classic cocktails.
The list: Hotel terrace lounge bar with cocktail-and-wine programme; 20 Sicilian and Italian selections by the glass; Etna DOC featured prominently
Tip: Terrace lounge with one of the best views in Taormina: the Ionian sea on one side, Etna on the other. The Etna Rosso pours are surprisingly good for a hotel bar.
The tasting bar at the historic Florio bagli on the Marsala seafront: the definitive venue for a structured Marsala by-the-glass experience, from the lightest Fine to 20-year Vergine Stravecchio.
The list: The in-house enoteca bar at the Florio bagli offers the full Marsala range by the glass: Fine, Superiore, Superiore Riserva, Vergine and Vergine Stravecchio
Tip: Ask the bar staff for a Vergine Stravecchio aged 15-plus years alongside the Fine to experience the full complexity arc of Marsala in a single sitting.
The tasting room at Carlo Pellegrino's Marsala winery, one of the city's founding bagli, offering structured Marsala pours from Fine through Vergine and vintage dessert wines.
The list: Pellegrino's in-house tasting room offers the full range of Marsala DOC styles alongside the producer's dry Sicilian wines; 8 by the glass
Tip: Pellegrino's Marsala Superiore Riserva and Vergine are the standouts for quality; try the Zibibbo dessert wine alongside the dry Grillo for a full taste of the Pellegrino range.
The Marco de Bartoli estate in Petrosino outside Marsala offers the most intellectually rigorous fortified and oxidative wine tasting in western Sicily, anchored by the Vecchio Samperi.
The list: The de Bartoli family's estate tasting room pours the full range including Vecchio Samperi (unfortified oxidative), Marsala Superiore and the Josephine Doree single-cru
Tip: Vecchio Samperi is the signature pour: unfortified, perpetual-blend oxidative Grillo. It technically cannot be sold as Marsala (no added spirit) but it is conceptually the most intellectually honest version of what Marsala could be.
Independent Marsala wine bar on Via XI Maggio with a cross-producer Marsala by-the-glass selection: the most comprehensive single-stop for tasting the DOC typology.
The list: Marsala-focused wine bar with independent by-the-glass selection across producers: Florio, Pellegrino, de Bartoli, Donnafugata; 15 by the glass
Tip: The only Marsala bar where you can taste all the major producers' Vergine and Superiore styles side by side in one evening without a cellar tour booking.
Catania's dedicated Sicilian wine bar on Via Landolina with late closing, Friday producer evenings and an all-island list. The closest Catania equivalent to a natural wine bar in Rome or Milan.
The list: All-Sicilian selection of 250 labels; 20 by the glass rotating weekly; producer guest appearances on Friday evenings
Tip: Friday late tastings with invited Etna and Vittoria producers are the best regular event on the Catania wine calendar. The 23:00-01:00 sessions are uniquely Sicilian in their informality.