Catarratto is a grape variety that has so far received little attention—at least from those who don’t mind having something truly good in their glass. And you can hardly blame them, since until recently the variety was found almost exclusively in village taverns, osterias, and the local supermarket shelves of Sicily, and for good reason.
Whether some very decent wines were produced for personal consumption is another question; things only really became interesting about twenty years ago, when a handful of winemakers began to radically change their approach in the vineyard. In short, they drastically lowered their yield expectations and stopped subjecting the soils and vines to the miracle promises of the agro-industry.
Anyone who also had a feel for the ideal harvest time and the right style of vinification suddenly ended up with wines in the bottle—like Aldo Viola’s first major Catarratto, the Krimiso—that not only pleased the top village drinkers but the rest of humanity as well.
Now Aldo is following up with a second Catarratto, the Angelo, and it too is guaranteed to bring a smile to your face. Unlike the Krimiso, it was vinified without skin contact and then aged not in stainless steel but in tonneaux. It was neither fined, nor sulfured, nor filtered.
Technical Sheet
Grape variety: Catarratto
Vineyard: Montelongo, sandy & clay soils
Harvest: By hand
Fermentation: Spontaneous | wild yeasts | no skin contact
Maturation: Just under one year in large wooden casks
Filtration: No
SO₂: Unsulfured
Alcohol: 13% vol.
Closure: Natural cork
Serving temperature: 10–12 °C
Optimal drinking window: From now until 2035
Content and price per liter: 0.75 l (€42.37/l)
All winemakers listed by Vinonudo work in their vineyards with compost, organic fertilizer, and natural preparations, and refrain from using herbicides, pesticides, and synthetic fertilizers.
