Nero d'Avola Sicilia D.O.C - Poggio Graffetta

Wine-growing culture in this south-eastern area of Sicily dates back to the traditions of the 18th-century, a period when the region was essentially a vast fiefdom of noble families that managed the region’s rural areas for long periods. Until a few decades ago, the difficult, laborious cultivation of Nero d’Avola and Moscato was carried out manually with the help of mules to drain the land and to transport the wine barrels from the winery to the retailers. The tradition of bottled wine, on the other hand, is a very recent chapter in this region.

The Graffetta winery is owned by the “Tenute Calì” wine group based in Tuscany. They acquired the winery with its 22 hectares of vineyards in 2004. The family behind has a passion for agriculture, good wine and outstanding products and the ambition to continuously improve quality through experience obtained from harvest to harvest.

The vines for the Nero d’Avola red wine grow in the Poggio Graffetta vineyards west of Siracusa in South-eastern Sicily at an altitude of 50 m. The climate is warm, dry, ventilated and temperatures are mitigated by the proximity from the sea. The power of the sun exposure guarantees long and complex ripening of these grapes, giving structure and extraction to the wines produced.

The grapes were harvested by hand, sorted and destalked followed by 14 days fermentation on the skins in stainless steel tanks. The wine was matured for 7-8 months in the tanks followed by a couple of months in the bottle.