Passion
In love with nature, agricolture and wine. This is what best defines us. We have been winegrowers for two generations and we take care every day of our vineyards and grapes, that we have always conferred to other wineries of our territory.
But our desire was to close the production chain and bottling the wine from our grapes, so in 2020 we started the “Villa Viticcè” project. Villa Viticcè is an ancient rural home belonging to our family, nestled in the countryside and sourranded by vineyards which will become the new structure for the wine cellar and the beating heart of our farm.
The goal is to create wines capables to fully express the character of a terroir, wines recognizable for their personality and belonging to the land they were born in.
The Wine
Wine is not just an alchoolic beverage, but it represents a piece of art and something exciting and capable to tell a story about the territory and the deep man-land connection.
That is what we would like to transfer and tell, stories about wine, people and nature.
We work every day driven by our passion and respecting the environment and every stages of the nature, resulting in a completely organic agricultural methods.
Where we are
Villa Viticcè consists of 22 hectares located upon a hill at nearly 300 metres above the sea level and the soils are mostly clay to calcareous and some brown.
These soils are largely cultivated with Nero d’Avola vines, and are characterized by a rich amount of minerals providing wines marked by a great minerality and sapidity as well as a high acidity, a key feature foe wines that want to last over time.
In our soils we also produce indigenous sicilian olives such as Nocellara and Biancolilla, that we use to make a small production of organic extravergin olive oil, always keeping the same care and attention dedicated to wine.
Biodiversity
As well as vineyards and olive trees, that represent the main cultivation, organges, lemons, almonds, lotus and prickly pears can also be found in Villa Viticcè.
Within the estate there is even a suggestive artificial pond, made to collect rainwater and used for the emergency irrigation of the vines during the major drought periods. This is usually done to relieve the stress that the plants might undergo during the hottest months of the year.
In fact despite vines are plants that can easily adapt to a warm and arid environment, an excessive water shortage might lead to incomplete ripenings with poor sugar content for the grapes and polyphenols with an excessive astringent and bitter character.
The Nero D'Avola
Nero d’Avola is the most famous and common sicilian red grape variety that nowadays represents the greatest wine of this Island. Nero d’Avola is a grape variety that prefers dry and well ventilated exposure, and it gives its best on poor and calcareous soils. These kind of soils can naturally reduce the yield giving well concentrated fine and elegant wines with good balanced aromas.
It’s been grown throughout Sicily, where soils and climate dramatically change and so the style of the wines, this why it is not easy to draw up a standard flavour profile for this grape variety. But among the most productive sicilian areas, the one that has always been recognized to be the best suited for the cultivation of Nero d’Avola is the area located in the very south of the Island facing the Mediterranean sea, where ideal conditions for winegrowing can be found with long and mild winters and warm summers that promote a perfect maturation of the vines.
The Grillo
Regarded as one of the most intriguing grape variety of the sicilian Island, it is a natural cross between to other grapes, Catarratto and Moscato d’Alessandria (moreover a crossbreeding that took place at the end of 1800 by the Baron Antonio Mendola within the Favara countryside, just few kilometres away from Naro).
It is a very versatile grape that changes depending on the climate and where it is grown, giving vibrant wines with good aromas, acidity and sapidity.
Grillo enclose all the sicilian clours and flavours as well as those of the Mediterranean area, a wine plenty of aromas recalling citrus, fresh fruit and orange blossoms.
The oil
Biancolilla, Nocellara and other native Sicilian varieties. These are the olives that are grown on our land, where, between one vineyard and another, they ripen to give life to an extra virgin oil with unique characteristics, typical of all Sicilian oils.
Cold extraction allows you to keep all the characteristics of the freshly harvested fruit unaltered, as well as its nutritional properties.
The result is an extra virgin olive oil with intense aromas and a strong but delicate flavor at the same time, which makes it a versatile product capable of best enhancing the characteristics of different types of dishes.