With the first bottle of Mamertino which we present at Vinitaly 2017, we close the circle of the Capo Milazzo project and that of our journey in Sicily.
When we arrived at this point, in the north-east, we realised at once that after Menfi, Vittoria, Noto and Etna, this would be the right place to conclude our journey, having realised our wish to present the island’s wines from all its territories.
This splendid peninsula has been devoted to viticulture since the times of the Romans, who right here – guided by Gaio Duilio – achieved in 260 B.C. their first victory against the Carthaginian fleet. And it was actually the Mamertini people, among the combatants of the First Punic War, who gave their name to this ancient wine which Julius Caesar liked so much that he chose it for the banquet to celebrate his third consulate and that Pliny placed at 4th place in his classification of 195 wines.
To produce this precious wine, contributing to the benefits of the small DOC which protects it, represents the realisation of a dream for us.
At Capo Milazzo we have given life to a project of viticulture sustainable not only from the point of view of cultivation and production, but more generally from the environmental, social and economic aspects.
Thanks to collaboration with the Fondazione Lucifero, owner of this magnificent and historically rich land, our vineyards grow on a high plateau suspended over the strip of water surrounding the Aeolian islands, between mountain and sea, with enchanting beaches and almost inaccessible through the thick Mediterranean undergrowth. By 2011 agricultural work had been abandoned here; coming across this magical place and those who manage the Fondazione today has made our adventure possible.
La Baronia is the smallest of our estates – 8 hectares of vineyard, surrounded by 20 hectares of ancient olive grove – but, as is obvious, it is full of meaning, memories and ideas.
The vineyard is already productive with regard to the regulations, or with 60% Nero d’Avola and 40% Nocera, but we wish to introduce experimentally another three old varieties: Vitraruolo, Lucignola and Catanese Nera, typical of the area but abandoned a long time ago.
Letting ourselves by guided as always by the criteria of the architectural avant garde and by minimum impact on the countryside, we have built a ‘portable winery’ among the vines; a small, light structure, of metal and stone, designed to be temporary and completely portable without damaging the territory.
We hope that this project will also help to promote interest in an area, like Capo Milazzo, that few people know but which is impossible not to admire; where there was only undergrowth, now there are new vines edged by natural footpaths making accessible this site unique in its position and landscape significance.
