Together for sixteen years, Giuseppe and Valeria think and work always side by side. In their vineyard on the slopes of Etna, a manual selection of the bunches is made, experimenting sustainable techniques in the cellar as well
It’s August 18th 2018 and it’s eight o’clock in the morning. Strange to talk about it now, in late winter, remembering a very hot and sunny day, especially on the slopes of Etna. Giuseppe doesn’t notice it: he’s used to. Now he just has to think about getting out of bed. Valeria, at that time, however, is in the middle of preparations. Today they don’t go to the vineyard, today they get married. The hours of the morning flow inexorable, the tension is sky-high. Giuseppe and Valeria have been together for 16 years and their wedding will be celebrated in a small church near the new vineyard rented in Montelaguardia, in Randazzo. New vineyard, old seamless project. In the cellars of the Parco Statella restaurant, more than 300 wines are refreshed, including Vini Scirto of the production of the spouses and other Etna labels, a gift from fellow producers. But it is the Don Pippinu who has the place of honour in the show: it represents a beginning and an arrival, a project of common life that doesn’t allow any expiry. Giuseppe was a picciarello when his grandfather, Don Pippinu, brought him in the vineyard during the summer. Once grown, the boy, now a man, finds out that he is able to take care of the ancient trees in the two districts. It was not difficult for Valeria to enter this scenario. In love with Giuseppe, with the newly concluded humanistic and linguistic studies, the poetry of the place and the enchanting language of wine seduced her in no time.
Since then, Giuseppe and Valeria, in their small way, do great things always side by side: with so much tenacity and love, they dedicate themselves to the plants care, letting herbicides or pesticides out of the vineyard, they make a careful manual selection of the bunches, experimenting with sustainable techniques in the cellar. The Carricante Don Pippinu and the Etna Rosso A ‘Culonna, are experienced as a great entrepreneurial trial, the one that transforms passion into action and dreams into reality. They were immediately (2010) consecrated as the best expressions of the Etna terroir, marking their future of autochthonous Muntagna vineyards. The red Don Pippinu comes out of the 2013 experience and in 2017 an enthralling Rosé All’Antica.
Outdoor wedding party, a bit of tension until the end. Until the last berry also in the vineyard, brought safely in the cellar during the harvest. Wet wines, lucky wines? Who knows. We will look for them in the best restaurants in Italy, in them we will look for Giuseppe and Valeria, the Etna, the rainy August, Don Pippinu and his villagers in Piazza dell’A Culonna.
