Ben Ryé and golf in the Sicilian west

A sweet wine from an island off an island

Ben Ryé is Donnafugata’s flagship, a Zibibbo made under the Passito di Pantelleria DOC, the grapes grown on the volcanic island of Pantelleria rather than on mainland Sicily. Donnafugata’s own base is in Marsala, on the western tip of the mainland, alongside Mille e una Notte and Sedàra. That split matters for anyone planning a visit: the grapes behind the bottle grow on an island reached by boat or a separate flight, while the winery’s own tasting room, in Marsala, sits inside driving range of the golf covered on this page.

Two more names carry equal weight in this part of the island: Planeta, based in Menfi, bottles Santa Cecilia as its own flagship label, and Tasca d’Almerita, at its Regaleali estate, makes Rosso del Conte from Nero d’Avola and Perricone under the Contea di Sclafani DOC, alongside Regaleali and Lamuri. Between the three, West Sicily covers ground from a single-island sweet wine to a mainland red built on two native grapes, a wider range than the region’s reputation for one famous bottle might suggest, and a genuine reason to give the area more than a single afternoon.

Where to taste it

Donnafugata, Planeta and Tasca d’Almerita each sit in their own zone, Marsala, Menfi and Regaleali, without a distance from golf on record for any of the three individually. Two smaller, visitable producers do carry a set distance: Di Giovanna, 22.8 km from the anchor course, and Cantina Cellaro, 21.5 km out, both realistic stops for anyone building a tasting day around the course itself rather than around a single named estate.

The three flagship names sit spread across a wide corner of western Sicily rather than clustered around a single village, which means the trip works better built around one producer as a day’s destination than as three stops on the same afternoon. Cantina Cellaro and Di Giovanna, sitting within roughly 20 to 23 km of the golf, are the more realistic pairing for a day that also includes eighteen holes. Anyone determined to reach Donnafugata’s own Marsala base, or Planeta in Menfi, or Tasca d’Almerita’s Regaleali estate, should treat that visit as the day’s main event rather than an add-on to the golf.

The course on the coast

Verdura Golf & Spa Resort is the anchor of the West Sicily: Verdura & Marsala itinerary and the only golf course inside it: a Kyle Phillips-designed seaside 36 that has hosted the Sicilian Open and was ranked Italy’s number one course by Golf World in 2022. The resort also carries the Verdura Spa, a 4,000 square metre seaside spa built by Rocco Forte right beside the fairways, which turns a day that starts with golf and a wine visit into one that can close with something other than a drive back to the hotel.

When to go

May is West Sicily’s best-scoring month in our climate data: 22.5 degrees average high, 6.5 rain days and 4.2 washout days. July pushes the dryness further still, just 0.6 rain days and 0.1 washout days across the entire month, the lowest washout reading anywhere in the dataset, though the average high climbs to 30.9 degrees. May keeps most of that dryness at a considerably more comfortable temperature for eighteen holes. April comes close behind, 19.0 degrees with 4.0 washout days, marginally drier than May at a noticeably cooler reading, a reasonable trade for anyone who finds late spring in Sicily already warm enough. August sits at the other extreme: 30.7 degrees and just 1.0 washout days, dry but hot enough that an early tee time is close to essential.

Planning the trip

West Sicily sits alongside two more itineraries on this island. To the east, Etna pairs golf with an entirely different volcanic wine style, grown on a mountain rather than beside the sea, and Val di Noto rounds out the island’s golf map on the opposite coast. A visitor with time for more than one stop on Sicily has three genuinely different itineraries to choose between, rather than three versions of the same trip. For the complete picture of West Sicily itself, see the West Sicily: Verdura & Marsala itinerary.