A beautiful crisp white, expressing the scents and aromas of a new Sicily.
This wine is bright yellow in colour with youthful hues. On the nose, it has fresh and fragrant aromas of jasmine, basil and grapefruit, tomato leaf and laurel. The palate is fresh and mineral, with hints of aromatic herbs such as oregano and mint, and excellent length.
The Mandrarossa wines hail from a selection of the best sites within Cantine Settesoli's 6,000 hectares of vineyard in southwestern Sicily, planted with 32 grape varieties. The vineyards are split between the cooperative's 2,000 members and cover the area around Selinunte, the hauntingly beautiful ruins of a Greek town founded 2,600 years ago. Cantine Settesoli helps support the restoration of this archaeological site.
First produced in 1999, Mandrarossa opened its own winery in 2021. They have one of the largest solar energy installations in the Italian winemaking sector, with their solar panels fuelling this completely sustainable winery, which is well integrated into the surrounding hills. Since then, Mandrarossa has increasingly focused on single-site wines after mapping the diverse soils of its vineyards and identifying its best sites.
Under the leadership of co-operative president Giuseppe Bursi, consultant winemaker Alberto Antonini has sought to improve viticulture, focusing on minimal intervention in the vineyards, resulting in better wines. Working with soil-mapping expert Pedro Parra and head winemaker Mimmo De Gregorio, Alberto has selected 500 hectares of vineyards from 160 growers to produce the Mandrarossa wines. These vineyards are close to the sea, where intense sunlight, moderating sea breezes, mild temperatures, multiple elevations and a myriad of different soil types combine to create the quality of grapes that Mimmo and Alberto are looking for.
The vineyards are located on hillside sites that face south and south-east, at 150-350 metres above sea level. Soils consist mainly of limestone and silty sand, and are medium-textured. The vines are Guyot trained, with a density of 4,000-4,500 plants per hectare.
The grapes were crushed and destemmed, then immediately cooled to 5-8°C, and kept at these temperatures for 4-6 hours on the skins to extract the maximum amount of flavour. They were then softly pressed and the juice was clarified for 36 hours at a low temperature. Fermentation took place over the course of 15-20 days in temperature-controlled, stainless-steel tanks at 16-18°C. The wine was kept in stainless-steel tanks for four months before bottling.
A brilliant accompaniment for seafood hors d'oeuvres, soft cheeses or light summer salads
