Yesterday we attended the Vini d'Italian  Trebicchieri Tasting which took place in the Barker Hanger at Santa Monica Airport.  This was a huge event with ninety nine tables offering wine from every part of Italy including Sicily and Sardinia. 
With so many wines it was necessary to narrow one's focus to one part of the country and its local  grape varieties.
Recently I have become interested in Sicilian wines so at this tasting I continued my research on  its wines..  This stems from the fact that my mother was born in Tribia, coming to the U.S. when she was three years old with her Mother and five year old sister.
Sicily has a fascinating wine history dating back to the time 2500 BC when colonizing Greeks first settled
there.
At the Aziende Agricole Planetra I met with Penny Murray showing a Cerasuolo di Vittoria as well as a Sicilia Mandrarossa Cartagho from Settesoli.
Also taking place at the Trebicchieri event was an olive oil tasting.  With the interest in the Mediterranean diet continuing to grow, olive oil and its quality has become a lively subject as well. As a food writer we have had numerous opportunities to taste olive oils and for this Writer with his Italian heritage have used olive oil our whole life
We found CNO--Consorzio Nazionale degli Ollivicoltori, a Farmers consortiium which includes thousands of olive farmers dedicated to growing quality olive oils.  The oils we tasted were under the Terre del Sole
brand and they were both exceptional.
After the tasting it was on to one of our favorite Santa Monica restaurants, The Enterprise Fish Company.