We were very young and inexpert but wanted to understand to what extent and where our wager would lead us, and we were aware that being in the deep south of Sicily would not do us any favors. Here the earth is burnt by the sun and the clods are arid and fiery; a land without water where growing a vine is tough and requires great sacrifices.

In our process of growth we made important choices such as concentrating on autochthonous vine species, getting mechanized, gradually transforming everything transformable in the production systems, trying to best exploit the technology which came to our aid and which has somehow modified the approach to wine to some degree all over the world.

We’ve worked hard and quietly over the years to build up something and grow as entrepreneurs, trying to smooth over not only the natural difficulties presented every year by this land but also the daily operational problems due to the small and very small pieces of land, spread over a 30 kilometre radius around Grotte, which are the boundaries of our 200 hectares.

When we started out we were aware of the sacrifices waiting for us, today we are proud of them because, we have been able in a mild way to pursue the hard job of working the land and to interpret the world of wine without losing our heads, becoming part of that new generation of Sicilians who didn’t want to emigrate and abandon their origins but sought to square up to life and contribute to changing their own land a little.

The most important thing we have is the customer that regards us very high and that respects us for the products we offer them every year, and we know that only through him we can continue to be vine-dressers here in Grotte, in the south of Sicily.

Inspired to text of Andrea Zanfi, Journey among the great wines of Sicily, Carlo Cambi Editore, Poggibonsi (SI), 2003, pp. 202-204