Vineyards & Wine Cellar
Vineyards
Where the joy of the grape harvest, blends with the beauty of unique places.
Feudo Maccari covers nearly 265 hectares, 60 of which are vineyards divided into three groups on the hills caressed all day by the sea breeze.
The heart is Maccari, corresponding to more than 70 percent of the Feudo, where the vineyards that have already made some 30 harvests are always in the sun all day long. Not far away is the other body of the estate, a district particularly suited for viticulture because the conformation of the soil retains moisture, a decisive detail in a drought-prone territory where Greeks, Romans and Arabs have always had to deal with the lack of water. Finally, the highest point of the estate, a terrace over the Ionian Sea and the natural oasis of Vendìcari, the area of contrada Gerbi and contrada Timponazzo where the different types between the soils, black and sandy or white calcareous, the differences in height and exposure, all seem to be created on purpose to favor the birth of complex wines and allow the different vegetative trends of the plants to be balanced. Not far away is an area particularly devoted to viticulture because the formation of the soil retains moisture, a decisive factor in a very arid area where Greeks, Romans and Arabs struggled with a severe lack of water. The appearance of the soft hills of Feudo Maccari, the white limestone soil, and the breezes that come from the meeting of two seas, create the best conditions for vines to grow successfully and give birth to great wines.
265
Hectares
South
Exposure
80 m a.s.l.
Altitude
Bush Farming:
Nero d’ Avola, Grillo and Syrah
Among the prickly pear bushes and the cool shade of carob trees, among the olive groves and almond trees in bloom, the imposing dwarf palms and fertile lemon groves, lies the splendid and enchanting “ad alberello” system of Nero d’Avola.
The choice of this training system is not only explained by the philological and historical recovery of vine cultivation in Sicily: the pruning allows a perfect reaction with maximum light at all hours of the day and the proximity of the soil allows an exchange of heat, ideal for the ripening of the fruit through optimal photosynthesis. In the ripening stage, the leaves in this crop form cover the clusters, thus allowing less oxidation of polyphenolic and aromatic substances and organic acids. The result is thus a unique grape fruit.
Wine Cellar
The cellar is the place where our grapes conclude their journey to be wine. “Because it is between the rows of vines that we make our wines by taking care of the quality of our soils and our grapes. When these arrive at the winery, they follow their natural transformation into wine and this begins its proper aging: in temperature-controlled steel vats, in ovoid cement containers, in earthenware containers or in oak barrels. We simply go along with the natural processes of fermentation, without the need for any other intervention. It is proof of how well our work in the vineyards has been done and how high the quality of our grapes is. The rest is taken care of by time, rest, and the magic of the cellar with its darkness and ancient scents.