Rugged terrain
Every day we work this difficult yet incomparable land, obstinate winegrowers challenging nature with respect and passion. We grow our Zibibbo and Grenache vines with heroic viticulture techniques and produce wines with extraordinary sensory properties.
The dry stone walls of Arab origin, which make the landscape on the Island of Pantelleria so distinctive, were built over the centuries by the farmers to free the fields from stones, thereby creating greater freedom for the plant roots to survive. In this way they also set the boundaries of the land by dividing them into small matarrette.
Zibibbo
Sweet and Sun-ripe
Zibibbo, a word for some deriving from the African word zabib (golden raisins) and for others from the Egyptian town of El Zibib, is the name used on the Island of Pantelleria to indicate the variety of muscat grape which originally came from the ancient city of Alexandria. This variety of vine found particularly suitable growing conditions here producing grapes with high sugar content.
The Zibibbo vines, cultivated as low broad bushes, plant their roots into terraces excavated from the volcanic soil and lie in small hollows, allowing them to trap and retain the humidity of the night and find protection from wind and sun. The planting density is 1.5 x 2 m. The trunk is about 10 cm high and bears 4-10 long arms, pruned very short leaving only the head buds so that the Zibibbo always produces two clusters on the shoots growing from the head buds and the latent buds.
Ancient roots
It was the Phoenicians who first introduced the Zibibbo plant to the Island of Pantelleria where it firmly established its roots. Here it found its ideal habitat producing a wine with a distinctive aroma and unmistakeable fragrance. The Zibibbo plant’s leaves are medium in size and the clusters are large and elongated. The grape is plump, oval-shaped, greenish-yellow with a thick skin and has a Muscat flavoured pulp with presence of vine seeds.
Bacchus, Deity of the Harvest
The Zibibbo grape-picking is done exclusively by hand in the second half of August… and these are festive days. Only the very best bunches are selected to guarantee excellent results. Although regulations allow a production of up to 8000 kg per ten thousand sq.m., our cultivation is much more restricted in order to achieve the best possible yield results from the harvest.
Grenache
Probably of Spanish origin, Grenache is a grape variety famous in the south of France. It is widely planted and for this reason also called the queen of Mediterranean grapes. Grenache is a sturdy, upright vine with small production and low yield and is ideally suited to our stony and arid terrain overlooking the sea. Grenache is spicy, with aromas of pepper, evolutionary balsamic notes and great adaptability and longevity.
We will be making our first red wine with Grenache.
Pantellerian olive trees
The Pantellerian olive trees are carefully pruned to be low-growing as protection against the buffeting winds. This encourages them to grow in breadth reaching diameters of over ten metres… natural sculptures shaped by time, true protagonists of the Pantellerian landscape.
Taking care of olive trees on Pantelleria is truly an art. Moreover, it is impossible to use any kind of mechanical equipment or machinery to facilitate the olive harvest. Therefore only undamaged olives at the right stage of ripeness are selected and hand-picked, protecting the plants and the olives from even the slightest invasive action.
Capers
Caper plants are typical of the Mediterranean flora with fleshy, dark green leaves and very striking flowers, whose white and pink colours have purple reflections. The plants begin blossoming between May and September and it is then that the tender new capers are picked just before they turn into flowers.
Every morning just after dawn, to avoid the torrid heat of the island, the tiring caper harvest begins. Bent for hours over the low-lying plants, we only pick the smallest capers to guarantee the highest possible quality of the final product… and their preservation in Sicilian sea salt enhances their flavour.
Oranges
Sicilian oranges are renowned worldwide as an emblem of the typical tastes and flavours of this land. There is a small orange grove on the Coste Ghirlanda Estate where you can stroll among the fragrant orange blossoms inside an Arab garden with its traditional dry stone walls built to protect the trees from the wind.
The orange trees begin to produce abundant fruit from November onwards and present us with a spectacle which never fails to enchant. We use our oranges to make a marmalade which succeeds in capturing all the delicate fragrance and flavour of this fruit in a small glass jar… evoking the atmosphere of Sicily as it once was.
