Con il termine Terre Sicane si indica il territorio anticamente abitato dai Sicani, una popolazione anellenica di origine iberica migrata in Sicilia intorno al XII secolo a.C. e successivamente ellenizzata dai coloni greci a partire dall’VIII secolo a.C.

Nel cuore di queste Terre sorgono oggi i Comuni di Menfi, Sciacca, Santa Margherita di Belìce, Montevago, Sambuca di Sicilia e Contessa Entellina, cittadine dalle diverse peculiarità ma legate indissolubilmente da un bellissimo e variegato territorio caratterizzato da monti, altopiani e colline dai dolci dorsi, quasi levigati, che corrono dall’interno verso la linea della costa, ora piana e sabbiosa, ora scogliera selvaggia e frastagliata, aperta sull’azzurro brillante del Mare Africano.

The Strada del Vino Terre Sicane is not just a route but also a way to get to know the area around the municipalities of Contessa Entellina, Menfi, Montevago, Sambuca di Sicilia and Santa Margherita di Belìce. Here, in a zone rich in cultural and environmental values, one can taste its generous wines, local products and the peculiarities of the area’s wine and food traditions.

An area where one can immerse oneself in the atmosphere of the ancient Entella at Contessa and Adranone in Sambuca, the highest Punic settlement in the Mediterranean; or bathe in the legendary Acquapia hot springs at Montevago or the magical air of the Gattopardo Literary Park at S. Margherita di Belìce or wander among the sweet and fertile hills that descend from Menfi towards the African Sea.

A land where different peoples and cultures have lived together and created history, art and traditions that link places, local products and particularly wine to myth and legend.

Wine and culture, or rather, The Taste of Culture.

In short, the right combination of culture, products and land that expresses the wine and food and places where, as Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa says in his work Il Gattopardo,  “…the true aspect of Sicily reappears….”.

The Strada encompasses one of the most interesting Sicilian regions from a wine producing point of view. We only have to mention one name among many: Planeta, one of the wine producing companies that has greatly contributed to the worldwide success story of Sicilian wine.

If we then add other brands like Settesoli, the most prestigious and successful Sicilian winemaking cooperative, and Donnafugata, which has one of its most interesting production areas at Contessa Entellina, and also Feudo Arancio, Cellaro, Corbera and many other producers, it is easy to understand how wine plays an important role in the Terre Sicane.

In fact, the “Strada del Vino Terre Sicane” includes four denominations of controlled origin: Contessa Entellina, Menfi, Sambuca di Sicilia and Santa Margherita di Belice.

Wines produced in these denominations take their characteristics from some of the most prestigious native vines in Sicily such as Inzolia, Grecanico, Grillo and Catarratto that produce white wines and Nerello Mascalese and the legendary Nero d’Avola that make the reds.

But international vines have also found their ideal habitat in these territories and, for this reason, wines obtained from varieties like Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot are also very successful.

Besides wines this area also revels in excellent dairy food products.

We only have to mention Vastedda del Belice, an extraordinary cheese made from the milk of the Belice Valley sheep, and, still on the subject of dairy products, we can also find red Pecorino, baked Ricotta, Piacentino, Sicilian Pecorino dop and sheep’s milk ricotta.

And, still in the heart of the Belice Valley, we can find other excellent agro-food delicacies like Santa Margherita del Belice prickly pears and thorny artichokes from Menfi.

The Terre Sicane cuisine includes a multitude of dishes able to evoke rites, festivals and ceremonies. It is a gastronomic culture that is strongly governed by the richness of the land and the whims of the climate, all masterly blended by that ancient know-how that is the flavour of tradition.

The novel “Il Gattopardo” by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa unwittingly gives an account of nineteenth century food in Sicily which was known as the cuisine of monsù, i.e. Monsieur le Chef, good cooks who took their knowledge and skill from refined French cooking that was so trendy at the time.

The buffet hall in the Lampedusa home is a “documented archive” of the gastronomic opulence and magnificence of the late nineteenth century which the Prince declared as the reason for the apparent and artificial change in his “Sicily”.

The Gattopardo, through his monocle, scans the “culinary delicacies” and the shameless “paste delle Vergini” or “Minni di Virgini”. The historian, Alfonso Di Giovanna, ascribes the patent for these cakes to Sister Virginia Casale di Rocca Menna from the convent  in Maria di Sambuca di Sicilia. In 1725, Donna Francesca Reggio, the Marchioness of Sambuca by her marriage to Don Giuseppe, ordered the nun to “do her utmost to create anything absolutely new within her competence and particularly in terms of sweets” for the wedding of the eldest son Pietro from the noble Beccadelli family.

It is said that the nun was inspired by the Sambuca hills that roll from the Anguillara Valley to the Castellaccio hill and the Minnulazza coast and thus created this winning cake known as “Minni di Virgini”, which Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, through his unparalleled Prince of Salina, defined as the shameless “paste delle Vergini”.