When is said Zibibbo most people think about sweet wine. In particular, a typical zone very popular for sweet zibibbo is Pantelleria island where is produced one of the most famous passito in the world. On the other hand, still in Sicily, there is a version of dry Zibibbo that is less popular but doesn’t mean has minor quality.
Producing a dry aromatic wine is not obvious but very difficult indeed. Probably is happened to everyone to taste a wine lovely to the nose but excessively aromatic on the palate. The right balance of the elements in a wine is crucial and if it is an aromatic one it has to have a crisp acidity to keep it fresh and easy to drink. It can seem easy to do but, in truth, it is necessary to take care of small details.
Baglio Diar to produce its dry zibibbo doesn’t leave anything to chance. The vineyards of zibibbo are placed around 300 meters above the sea level because the temperature range increase the amount of acidity in the grapes. Due to the extreme hot during the harvest, Baglio Diar team has to start picking at 3 am when the tempertaure is low and the acidity of the crop is higher. After the first crush, the must is left at 4 ̊C (crio maceration) to keep all the aromatic compounds which are typical to zibibbo.
Fantasia on the nose gives intense aromas of orange blossom and grapefruit along with a delicate smell of eucalyptus. On the palate, the wine is light-bodied, with a pleasant acidity, a lovely note of litchi, banana within the hint of oregano and sage which last on a long finish. It goes well with spicy white meats and savoury shellfish soup. It can be also very nice if paired with hot dishes without tomato or cheeses within herbs.
In 2022 Baglio Diar has doubled the production of dry zibibbo going from 6.000 bottles in 2021 to the current 12.000 which points out the encreasing appeal of this wine. Fantasia is sold in 9 regions of Italy and distributed in 8 foreign countries.
In the last 2 years Fantasia, along with the other Baglio Diar wines, has started to join the firsts wine challenge and the results are very positive. The vintage 2020 has achieved the golden medal at the edition 2021 of “Citta’ del Vino” and gained 90 points at “5 star wines”.
5 star wines is a wine competition managed by Vinitaly which involve around 3.000 wines. Among all the wines only 180 were selected for the 2022 guide and Fantasia was one of those.
The vintage 2021 got awarded by the silver medal at Decanter 2022, the most important wine challenge in Europe and among the most influential ones of the world.
Considering that the first vintage of Fantasia was produced only in 2019, the results achieved gain even more value but also underline that this is just the beginning.
Dry zibibbo has a strong identity which is not for everyone but its unic taste doesn’t have equal and althought it is less renowned than the sweet version, its popularity can grow along with its fame just like Fantasia is showing up.