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Palmento: A Sicilian Wine Odyssey
Inspired by a deep passion for wine, an Italian heritage, and a desire for a land somewhat wilder than his home in southern France, Robert V. Camuto set out to explore Sicily’s emerging wine scene. What he discovered during more than a year of traveling the region, however, was far more than a fascinating wine frontier. Chronicling his journey through Palermo to Marsala, and across the rugged interior of Sicily to the heights of Mount Etna, Camuto captures the personalities and flavors and the traditions and natural riches that have made Italy’s largest and oldest wine region the world traveler’s newest discovery. In the island’s vastly different wines he finds an expression of humanity and nature—and the space where the two merge into something more. Here, amid the wild landscapes, lavish markets, dramatic religious rituals, deliciously contrasting flavors, and astonishing natural warmth of its people, Camuto portrays Sicily at a shining moment in history. He takes readers into the anti-Mafia movement growing in the former mob vineyards around infamous Corleone; tells the stories of some of the island’s most prominent landowning families; and introduces us to film and music celebrities and other foreigners drawn to Sicily’s vineyards. His book takes wine as a powerful metaphor for the independent identity of this mythic land, which has thrown off its legacies of violence, corruption, and poverty to emerge, finally free, with its great soul intact. Watch the Palmento book trailer on YouTube.
312 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 2010
30 people are currently reading
161 people want to read
About the author
Robert V. Camuto
11 books8 followersRobert Camuto is a prize-winning American author and journalist, who has lived in Europe with his family from the outset of the 21st century.
Here he has immersed in the terroirs of France and Italy, writing about wine, food, culture and travel for many publications and authoring a series of books in his personal and soulful style.
A contributing editor of features for the Wine Spectator since 2008, Camuto writes a twice monthly column, Robert Camuto Meets…, for winespectator.com.
A native New Yorker and graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, Camuto has had an incredibly varied journalistic career – from writing about New Wave music in the San Francisco area to covering Texas politics. In the 1990s he founded Fort Worth’s (still publishing) alternative newspaper FW Weekly (sold in 2000).
As an American in Europe, he has contributed to publications including Food & Wine, the Washington Post – Travel, Cucina Italiana, and Michelin Green Guides.
Over the course of his career he has become an accomplished profiler of people—from the poet Charles Bukowski to the likes of Sting, John Malkovich, and the many fascinating characters he has met along the wine roads of Europe.
He has been a home winemaker. And he speaks frequently about wine personalities, Italy, France, and storytelling. He is based in Verona, Italy.
Here he has immersed in the terroirs of France and Italy, writing about wine, food, culture and travel for many publications and authoring a series of books in his personal and soulful style.
A contributing editor of features for the Wine Spectator since 2008, Camuto writes a twice monthly column, Robert Camuto Meets…, for winespectator.com.
A native New Yorker and graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, Camuto has had an incredibly varied journalistic career – from writing about New Wave music in the San Francisco area to covering Texas politics. In the 1990s he founded Fort Worth’s (still publishing) alternative newspaper FW Weekly (sold in 2000).
As an American in Europe, he has contributed to publications including Food & Wine, the Washington Post – Travel, Cucina Italiana, and Michelin Green Guides.
Over the course of his career he has become an accomplished profiler of people—from the poet Charles Bukowski to the likes of Sting, John Malkovich, and the many fascinating characters he has met along the wine roads of Europe.
He has been a home winemaker. And he speaks frequently about wine personalities, Italy, France, and storytelling. He is based in Verona, Italy.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
April 10, 2019
Topic of the book - 5 stars, quality of writing - 3 stars, judgmental author - 1 star
I love Sicily, and her wines make for fascinating study, but this book reads in many parts like a study of male fashion choices. Camuto’s writing, often clunky, sometimes pleasant, can’t diminish the raw, scarred beauty of the island and her people, but his oddly condescending tone toward the Sicilians who so generously shared their time and food as well as wine insights and hopes is almost insufferable.
I love Sicily, and her wines make for fascinating study, but this book reads in many parts like a study of male fashion choices. Camuto’s writing, often clunky, sometimes pleasant, can’t diminish the raw, scarred beauty of the island and her people, but his oddly condescending tone toward the Sicilians who so generously shared their time and food as well as wine insights and hopes is almost insufferable.
July 3, 2016
Interesting from the perspective of getting history and context on where we were going. Annoying in that it was one of the more self-centered aggrandizing travelogues I've seen. (Well, I suppose most are...)
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Started on the plane en-route to Sicily.
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Started on the plane en-route to Sicily.
November 26, 2010
What else would you want to read before you prance off to Sicily to gorge yourself on wine (between exploring old family dramas)? Camuto's well(-enough)-written book on the wine-growers, wine traditions and the wine industry of this freaky little island may have done little in terms of preparing me to drive the streets of Palermo, but it conveyed the rich cultural history of this place through the one subject I wanted to explore. You can say it's a window into Sicily's heart (Mafia, immigration, history, attitudes, lifestyle) as seen through its wine glass. Always more than half-full, and someone ready to pour another.
November 28, 2021
As this book’s subtitle accurately states, this is an Odyssey into Sicilian wine, and chronicles the author’s long and adventurous journey, discovering the land, people, customs and wines of this storied part of Italy.
Robert Camuto is an American writer with Sicilian roots, who is based in southern France. He’s inspired to find his roots and follow a passion for wine, so he takes and chronicles a full year travelling from the fabled Mt. Etna to Marsala and Sicily interior and outer islands, to discover this wonderful “Continent” - how many Sicilians view their island!
What he finds are both local people and an increasing number of foreigners – some of them celebrities – who are now bound to this land, its charms and to the fabulous wines, which are tangible expressions of what the land and people can create, together.
All the wine makers that Camuto meets, have a passion and a visceral attachment to the land, climate, and grapes that help shape the wonderful Nero D’Avola and Nerello Mascalese reds, and the Catarratto and Carricante whites, of Sicily.
While I liked most about Palmento, was that it was a story well told. The book was light and well written – showcasing the skills of the author. The book is also about travel and wine, two of my passions: so, it was a hard book not to like. I learned much from this mini-Odyssey, and the book has helped push Sicily up my travel list.
As for the title, I was also curious for I had not heard of this interesting structure before. A Palmento is stone house found throughout Sicily, built to transform grapes into must and wine and then pour into barrels. Palmenti usually consist of 3 or 4 rooms on different levels to exploit gravity in creating wine. Most Palmenti are abandoned because EU laws no longer accept them as “legal” processes to make wine. They are deemed to be unhygienic despite being used for centuries.
It’s a fun book. Well worth the read.
Robert Camuto is an American writer with Sicilian roots, who is based in southern France. He’s inspired to find his roots and follow a passion for wine, so he takes and chronicles a full year travelling from the fabled Mt. Etna to Marsala and Sicily interior and outer islands, to discover this wonderful “Continent” - how many Sicilians view their island!
What he finds are both local people and an increasing number of foreigners – some of them celebrities – who are now bound to this land, its charms and to the fabulous wines, which are tangible expressions of what the land and people can create, together.
All the wine makers that Camuto meets, have a passion and a visceral attachment to the land, climate, and grapes that help shape the wonderful Nero D’Avola and Nerello Mascalese reds, and the Catarratto and Carricante whites, of Sicily.
While I liked most about Palmento, was that it was a story well told. The book was light and well written – showcasing the skills of the author. The book is also about travel and wine, two of my passions: so, it was a hard book not to like. I learned much from this mini-Odyssey, and the book has helped push Sicily up my travel list.
As for the title, I was also curious for I had not heard of this interesting structure before. A Palmento is stone house found throughout Sicily, built to transform grapes into must and wine and then pour into barrels. Palmenti usually consist of 3 or 4 rooms on different levels to exploit gravity in creating wine. Most Palmenti are abandoned because EU laws no longer accept them as “legal” processes to make wine. They are deemed to be unhygienic despite being used for centuries.
It’s a fun book. Well worth the read.
July 16, 2020
An enjoyable series of encounters with Sicilian winemakers written by an author who proves to be a genial if opinionated writer. There are plenty of platitudes about the land, the soil, and honesty, but there are also candid assessments of wines and insights into the struggle of artisans in an age of conformity. I like the wines and the book.
September 22, 2023
I am not a drinker and the book is about the vineyards of Sicily, but I picked up the book for a little history of the cities prior to our trip there. Histories of viticulture and the mafia influence on the island were fascinating!
November 6, 2017
Great look into the characters, culture, history, strategies and clashes in the wine industry in Sicily.
February 26, 2018
Insightful and brutally honest at times, this book is a charming read. It's pretty much exactly what it says on the tin.
May 14, 2019
Intriguing journey into the world of Sicilian wine traditions and mythology.
March 20, 2025
A survey of Sicilian wine-making with digressions into food and contemporary history.
July 5, 2012
An American writer, with Sicilian grandfather and Mediterranean Sea in his blood went along Sicily trying to understand its wines, according to understand winemakers, winegrowers and people as well.
The journey is a difficult one, for all the imperfections tha made that island a wonderful and close to impossible place to live in.
Camuto met some of the biggest producers and someone aobut the crazy winelover, coming from other place (Italian or foreiners).
Within a year spent from a side to another, the author shows us several way to believe in wine, land and terroir, instilling in you the need to take a flight to reach Mount Etna or Pantelleria Island and begin to work in vines.
The reader can also understand the inner view of many about new Sicilian producers, in the middle between truly organic wine without labelling it and new style.
You can't help loving it.
The journey is a difficult one, for all the imperfections tha made that island a wonderful and close to impossible place to live in.
Camuto met some of the biggest producers and someone aobut the crazy winelover, coming from other place (Italian or foreiners).
Within a year spent from a side to another, the author shows us several way to believe in wine, land and terroir, instilling in you the need to take a flight to reach Mount Etna or Pantelleria Island and begin to work in vines.
The reader can also understand the inner view of many about new Sicilian producers, in the middle between truly organic wine without labelling it and new style.
You can't help loving it.
December 13, 2016
This book checked all the boxes for me. I am very interested in "off the beaten path" travel, history, and of course WINE! Mr. Camuto's descriptions of Sicily were inspiring and beautiful, and it made me want to go there. I never realized how much that island had going on! Never knew a whole lot about it, aside from mafia stories. The book had a good mix of personal experience, history, and the science behind wine-making, interspersed in a way that kept my interest. I particularly enjoyed the colorful mix of wine-makers that he met on this journey. I hope to someday make it to this place to see and taste for myself.
September 18, 2011
Camuto has convinced me more than ever that I need to make that trip to the land of my paternal grandparents. He does a wonderful job describing the past, present, and future of wine-making in Sicily,but his travels throughout this Mediterranean island reveal much more about the land, its history, and the heart and soul of the people that he meets. I need to run, not walk, to buy that plane ticket.
August 25, 2014
Camuto, in this year-long "odyssey", meets and writes about the iconic and not so iconic figures of the modern Sicilian wine scene and portrays a Sicily in juxtaposition of old and new, of innovation and tradition.
In doing so, he fleshes out the history and the culture of wine in Sicily, with a good dose of social commentary and gastronomy intertwined, and so for me at least, this was a perfect read before my travels to Sicily.
In doing so, he fleshes out the history and the culture of wine in Sicily, with a good dose of social commentary and gastronomy intertwined, and so for me at least, this was a perfect read before my travels to Sicily.
May 1, 2019
I read it just before our visit to Sicily. You will find some history, wine regions of the Island, wine makers like Frank Cornelissen, their stories and wines. His stories and way of writing is captivating with a sense of humor, far from boring. More like a travel journal. We even found ourselves driving to the restaurant, Sakalleo, he mentioned in the book and happy we did. If you are into the wine, especially the Sicilian wine volcanic or not, it is a great read.
November 7, 2010
A wonderful book for the nightstand. Good writing and an easy read. Camuto does a very nice job of sharing his year-long odyssey on the island of Sicily; the people he met, the history of wine making on the island, the influx of foreigners and their influence on both the wines and on the locals. Best of all are his descriptions of the locals themselves and their food & customs. (with photos)
September 5, 2016
Reading this book made me want to revisit Sicily. The description of Mt. Etna, the surrounding villages, the vineyards and the wine made for perfect escapist summer reading but also introduced me to several wines I'd like to track down and sample.
December 17, 2010
A very good read. Not pretentions at all and Sicily comes off as a very cool place.
Read
October 12, 2012I thought I would love it. Hey, it's Italy. Well, I didn't. And I just didn't care enough to keep going.
May 20, 2011
Great read before our 3rd Sicily trip to visit family. I now have a whole new world to check out there.
Read
August 21, 2012I was enjoying this but kind of lost the thread, got distracted with other stuff. I will go back to it.
July 7, 2012
This book is a positive discussion of a changing Sicily through the eyes of semi-elite wine growers. I'd read it again before traveling to Sicily.
July 10, 2013
Makes me love Sicily all the more.
July 31, 2015
This is an amazing book. I love the way the author writes and i feel like i am in Sicily when i read it. Can't wait to go.
March 27, 2017
Really interesting exploration of Sicilian wines, an underappreciated wine region. Reads like a travelogue. Now I'm itching to plan a trip there.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews