Cantine Barbera

At the western border of the Belicello Estate, the Belìce River flows lazily towards the Mediterranean, drawing large volutes, bordered by brambles and reeds and inhabited by hawks, herons and birds of passage. The deep sandy soils on the embankment are periodically invaded by the waters of the river which, overflowing, deposit silty sediments and enrich them with a substantial mineral component. Inside a cove, which we have always called La Vota, lives the Cabernet Sauvignon: son of the River, the sea and the sands, interwoven with the flowers and herbs of the bed, minerals and brackish.

The Little Girl is play, curiosity, discovery. It is the wine that I have dedicated to women, to their strength, to their ability to fight for what they believe in without being frightened by difficulties. Its delicately coppery color is fascinating as a prelude to a fragrant bouquet of wild rose and wild strawberries, pomegranate, watermelon and lemon peel. Savory and crunchy on the palate, it is a very pleasant wine, whose persistence is accentuated by an iodized, almost marine finish.

Although originally from Ragusa, most of the Frappato is grown in the province of Trapani, a few kilometers from my vineyards. Menfi and Vittoria have a lot in common: both exposed to the South and therefore to Africa, kissed by the salty wind of the Mediterranean and rich in sandy-limestone soils lying on compact clays. These affinities convinced me to introduce Frappato to Belìce. When I created the FuoriZona label, Liliana Segre's story came to mind about the little girl who, during her deportation to Auschwitz, drew a butterfly flying over the barbed wire. I would like the tiny gesture of drawing that butterfly to bear witness to that message: always choose love, peace, solidarity towards every human being who lives, together with us, on this earth.

The old vineyards of Inzolia planted by my father more than fifty years ago are an extraordinary legacy on which to build the future of viticulture in Belicello. The original clones, perfectly adapted to the particular conditions of the environment to which they belong, exuberantly express the personality and wine culture of the Menfi area. The soil, mainly calcareous and pebbly, gives the wine an intense and at the same time delicate sapidity, great depth and aromatic breadth.

Coda della Foce has been defined as a beautiful wine in a blue dress: elegant, never intrusive, at ease in any situation, persuasive with style and personality. Blend of Nero d'Avola and Petit Verdot in variable proportions depending on the vintage, it comes from the assembly of the best carats that have shown a particular personality and evolutionary finesse and is produced only when the characteristics of each harvest and the long aging in large casks allow it to express a superior organoleptic quality. Super Sicilian by birth, citizen of the world by choice of life.

Alicante is a variety of Spanish origin, introduced in Sicily during the dominations of the XV-XVI century and widespread in many regions of the Mediterranean, where it is also known by the name of Garnacha, Grenache and Cannonau. In Menfi its personality is influenced by the marine microclimate which enriches the typical fruity softness of the vine with a particular saline note and makes the wine very expressive and very pleasant. Ciàtu is love, it is breath and breath, it is the energy of the sun, the profound strength of the earth, the very breath of life.

In Sicily, "coast" is the side of the hills that gently slope down to the sea, covered by vineyards as far as the eye can see that bask in the sun, unkempt by the fresh Mediterranean breezes. These are the places of Grillo, a fascinating native variety that interprets the beauty of the Menfi terroir with great personality. Son of generous lands, Coste al Vento gives us a full and ripe fruit that blends with the brackish notes brought by the sea winds, in a harmonious crescendo made original by maceration on the skins and fermentation with indigenous yeasts.

Azimut, our first wine. Expected and cherished like a dream that takes shape, which then becomes possible and finally becomes concrete with the passion and work of every day. Azimut, from the Arabic as-sumuth which means direction: because being a winemaker is not just a job, but implies a profound and conscious choice of life. Our experimentation with wild yeasts began with Azimut, of which very little was said in Sicily at the time, and this is why it was considered an extreme wine from the outset, with a little international personality.

Arèmi, one of the four suits with which the gambling cards are painted, as well as the community cards. The coin suit, which has the color of gold and like gold is precious in the game of broom and seven and a half. Catarratto is liquid gold, culuri d'arèmi: intense and brilliant gold that lights up from the sun and the sea of Sicily, full of the millenary history that skilled hands have handed down to us, from generation to generation, from the Greek motherland to the fertile countryside of Memphis. Arèmi is love for the land, respect for knowledge, conscious acceptance of a heritage to be preserved.

By hand, to recover the value of manual work, the care and joy in doing it. By hand, to underline the absolute craftsmanship of the production of a wine made without the aid of machinery, without additives or synthetic oenological products, in which the human component is at least as important as the natural one. Only grapes and hands: in a world where machines and homologation increasingly replace man and his creativity, hands are, perhaps, the thing to which we must return.

That is, as many would say that you should NOT write a wine technical sheet. But that's how I wrote it, straight off, drinking Albamarina side B, telling what is really important in wine: emotion. Have you tried Albamarina 2012 yet? Well done, it's a good wine, I'm sure you liked it. Now the "B side" comes out. Side B are 10 hectoliters of Catarratto passito 2012 that I had decided to throw away. As I always do when I do something new and my mom disagrees (basically ALL of the time), I said to her: Mom, what do you care? If it doesn't turn out good, we throw it away – or sell it in bulk. She is not very convinced, but after a few days of discussions she finally lets me do it (thanks mom). So: I left 15 hectoliters (yes, 15, then I'll explain) of passito in overfilled barrels, hoping for the fioretta to come, for another 18 months. INCREDIBLY, this wine, despite having been sulphited (and don't ask me how it's possible, because I don't know either) continued to ferment very slowly for another 18 months, until from the initial 13.5 it reached an alcohol content of 15% vol – a little more actually, but we don't tell anyone, okay? At some point it FINALLY came out good. But no normal good, just good. So: the B side. I took 10 hectoliters and bottled it (which is what you can now find on #vgm) and kept the other 5 in strictly full barrels to make a perpetual one. Which, when it's good, is the best thing in the world of wine. PERPETUAL IS WINE - if you don't believe it, call De Bartoli. But the perpetual, if it turns out good, we'll talk about it in 5/6 years. For the moment there is the B side.

Sottosopra is a sparkling wine obtained with the ancestral method and is bottled without prior disgorgement. If you love strong flavours, drink it as it is, with all its yeasts, or keep it upside down in the fridge for 24 hours if you want to disgorge it before tasting it. Intense golden yellow, very veiled because still on its lees. ...