Gurvinder Bhatia

Wine Paris is establishing itself as the first major international wine festival of the calendar year and is quickly taking over (perhaps it already has) from Prowein as the most important international wine festival for wine producers, importers, and industry professionals from around the globe.

This time of year, my inbox tends to fill with requests for wine recommendations for holiday gatherings. Most often, the requests involve how to gift or serve a wine to someone you don’t know or how to pick a wine to bring to a gathering filled with people you’ve never met before or a group with diverse tastes. My suggestion…bring/serve wines that possess all the requirements to be a crowd pleaser. This does not involve compromising on quality.

Sicily is one of the most diverse regions in Italy. Due to its strategic position in the Mediterranean, it has throughout history been a desirable and valuable target/prize for trade and military initiatives. As a result, the island’s influences are numerous and evident due to the vast diversity of occupiers from the Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Spanish, Arabs, Normans and others. Sicily is also stunningly beautiful.