Made with sweetly fragrant Malvasia grapes from the tiny island of Salina off the northern coast of Sicily, this Passito dessert wine opens with all the intensity you’d expect of sunny southern Italy. The wine sports a luminous amber color and aromas of candied fruit or orange rind, dried mint, touches of root beer and even a hint of white licorice. ——M.L.(12/31/2010)—— 88