Cataratto has always been the workhorse among the island's white grape varieties, and you could taste it. Only recently have there been a small number of winegrowers who have really got to the bottom of the character of Catarratto and are breaking new ground.
Aldo Viola's Montelongo Catarratto vineyard is located in a northern exposure at an altitude of over 400 metres. This pushes back the harvest time, extends the vegetation period and keeps the acidity at a fairly high level for Sicily. The cultivation is rigorously organic, with a lot of manual and careful and thoughtful foliage work. Sulphur spraying (against oidium) is carried out a few times a year, while copper treatments can usually be completely dispensed with thanks to the good ventilation and dry conditions. Yields are half the usual level and are around 6500 kilos per hectare.
Harvested by hand, the grapes are then fermented spontaneously and the wine is left in contact with the skins for a further five months. Once pressed, it is bottled unfiltered and unsulphurised without further ageing.
Style
Deep, Mediterranean, salty and yellow-fruity. The Krimiso explores boundaries and shows what happens to a grape variety that has been dismissed as banal when it is placed in the right place, cultivated with care and vinified seriously. Acidity and tannin are perceptible but well integrated. The finish is long, juicy and mineral.
Data sheet
- Grape varieties: Grillo
- Vineyards: Montelongo, sand & clay soils
- Harvest: By hand
- Fermentation: spontaneous | wild yeasts, 5 months skin contact
- Ageing: 5 months in stainless steel tanks, 3 months in the bottle
- Filtration: no
- SO₂: unsulphured
- Alcohol: 12,5 % vol.
- Closure: natural cork
- Drinking temperature: 10-12°C
- Perfect time of consumption: from now – 2028
- Content and price per liter: 0,75 l/(€32,37/l)
- All winegrowers listed by vinonudo work in their vineyards with compost, organic fertilizers and natural preparations and do not use herbicides, pesticides or artificial fertilizers.
