Last Updated on June 5, 2025
Tasting and Dinner at Silva Restaurant, Mayfair
We first came across the Mayfair restaurant Silva when it launched in November 2024. We picked the Mediterranean restaurant for our new opening of the month and thoroughly enjoyed the experience there. So, the opportunity to go back for a wine tasting and dinner to celebrate the wines of Sicily was both appropriate and one not to miss.
Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean, is a land of rich history and dramatic landscapes. It is also one of Italy’s most dynamic and diverse wine regions. In recent years, Sicily has undergone a remarkable transformation, emerging as a producer of high-quality wines that combine ancient viticultural heritage with modern innovation. Today, there are over 20 DOC zones in Sicily. What makes the wines of Sicily stand out is a wealth of indigenous grapes such as Nero d’Avola, Grillo and Carricante, and today’s winemakers capitalise on that diversity, alongside select international varieties that thrive in the varied microclimates that make up the island.
On this occasion, we tasted a selection of wines from Fuedo Disisa, Cantine De Gregorio, Donnafugata, Cantina Murgia Lamanno and Funaro. I loved the minerally and citrussy notes of the Pinzeri, our first white wine from Funaro and 100% Grillo grape, an indigenous white grape that is best known for its role in Marsala fortified wine. In fact, we tried a delicious, honeyed sweet wine based on Grillo at the end of the tasting, Krysos from Feudo Disisa
Two of the wines were Chardonnay – the first from Feudo Disisa and the second, Magaria from Cantine de Gregorio. An excellent way to demonstrate how the varied terroir of Sicily can create markedly different wines from the same grape, the Magaria was based on vines planted in an old riverbed and then aged in French oak, steel and in the bottle, creating a tropical fruit nose with notes of vanilla, while the Feudo Disisa Chardonnay was a wine with a fine, elegant minerality, from one of the oldest Chardonnay vineyards in Sicily.
Catarratto, another indigenous white grape from Sicily, was the base of Liola from Cantina Murgia Lamanno. It’s a particularly important wine in Sicily and one I’d like to explore more.
I generally love Sicilian Nero D’Avola wines for their rich, fruity notes. We were treated to a tasting of one single variety Nero D’Avola from Cantina Murgia Lamanno, and one from Donnafugata that was a blend of Nero D’Avola, Petit Verdot and Syrah.
Mille e Una Notte is a wine named after the Arabian Nights stories. Having visited the Donnafugata estate several years ago, I was fascinated to discover that the special edition bottle was dedicated to ‘The Leopard’ – a Netflix series inspired by Tomasi di Lampedusa, which featured Donnafugata as the name of The Leopard’s estate. It was a fabulous blend, with all the robust fruity notes of a classic Nero D’Avola softened by the blend.
Once we’d worked our way through this fascinating introduction to Sicilian wines, it was time to enjoy some of the food at Silva, paired with more fabulous wines.
After some delicious sourdough with honey and olive oil butter, we moved on to starters. My salmon tartare with avocado, puffed rice, and ponzu was light and fresh, but I have to confess to eyeing up the crispy fried egg with parmesan sauce, girolles and truffles, which sounded fabulous and was pronounced delicious.
And, the steak tartare, served on a potato waffle with shards of cured egg, also looked amazing.
My main course of wild seabass all’acqua pazza, courgettes and green olives was perfectly cooked, with crisp skin, tender flesh and a delicious sauce.
The lamb cutlets enjoyed by my companion were equally amazing, cooked to the perfect pinkness, tender and moist.
Then, for dessert, Manuela’s cheesecake for me, a creamy baked Basque-style cheesecake and a delicious and picture-perfect fruit tart for my companion.
We enjoyed a wide selection of Sicilian wines with our food and left well fed but with an appetite to learn more about the delicious wines and the unique terroir of Sicily.
We dined at Silva Restaurant 26-28 Bruton Place, London, W1J 6NG
as guests of Funaro Cantina Murgia Lamanno, Donnafugato, Feudo Disisa and Cantine de Gregorio, a selection of wineries representing the Wines of Sicily.
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