While tasting through Massimo Padova’s wines in the cool, dark interior of the Riofavara winery this July, the inevitable and familiar question arose: how did you first meet Kermit? Massimo smiled proudly, and he responded, “It was fate.” The way Massimo tells it, 2010 was one of the most brutally hot summers on record, much like the day of our visit. Kermit sought to escape the sweltering heat in a local refuge, a restaurant called Osteria Nero d’Avola in Taormina, where an eccentric sommelier, Turi Sigliato, approached his table. Recognizing that Kermit was a man of serious wine culture, he began to propose his favorite wines—all Nero d’Avolas. Kermit politely declined, indicating that he was more interested in exploring the Nerello Mascalese–based wines of Mount Etna. “Bring me anything BUT Nero d’Avola,” he firmly told the sommelier. Turi returned with an unmarked carafe of red wine, which Kermit tasted and declared to be delightful. The wily Turi then revealed he had brought him a Nero d’Avola anyway: a bottle of young Massimo Padova’s Nero d’Avola.
     Upon receiving Kermit’s enthusiastic reaction, Turi immediately called Massimo and instructed him to come to Taormina to meet this American importer. Massimo set out the next day—another oppressively hot afternoon—to meet Kermit in a piazza in Taormina, bottles in hand. However, the extreme temperatures had warmed the bottles, so Kermit ducked into a nearby bar and requested a bag of ice, which he used as an impromptu ice bucket in order to chill the wines and taste them properly. Massimo was both touched and impressed by this gesture of kindness; in addition to Kermit’s professionalism, he demonstrated his respect for Massimo and his life’s work. This meeting marked the beginning of a long collaboration between the two men, as the wines of Riofavara became Kermit’s very first Sicilian imports. An unlikely, but happy conclusion, given the fact that Kermit indeed was looking for “anything but Nero d’Avola!”