Vini Scirto

The Vini Scirto winery is a small artisan producer located on the slopes of Mount Etna in Passopisciaro, a hamlet of Castiglione di Sicilia. Here Giuseppe Scirto and Valeria Franco have been cultivating 2.5 hectares of land since 2009, which they inherited from Giuseppe's grandfather, and are united by a mutual love and visceral passion for their land. Before embarking on this adventure, Giuseppe was an IT expert and Valeria a foreign language graduate. Their choice was to continue producing wine as their grandfather Don Pippino used to do and as his ancestors before him had always done, without using synthetic chemicals. This is why Giuseppe and Valeria call themselves heretic winemakers, with their roots firmly planted in the centuries-old traditions of their land and bound to a rigorous idea of authentic artisanal production.

The few hectares of land of the Scirto winery are populated by free-range, or ungrafted, vines between 80 and 100 years old and divided between two plots: one in Contrada Feudo di Mezzo and the other in Contrada Porcaria, at an altitude of about 650 metres. Since 2017, two other small plots of land have been rented in Contrada Randazzo, one at an altitude of 700 and the other at an altitude of 1,000 metres. Although they are not far from each other, each small plot has very different characteristics, essentially caused by the stratification of different lava flows. Following the teachings of grandfather Don Pippino, all forms of mechanisation and weeding are abolished in the vineyard. The same radical commitment to rural tradition applies in the cellar: 'the only chemistry we use is our love', Valeria loves to repeat.

The wines of Vini Scirto are the fruit of a small production of just 4,000 bottles. They could be defined as 'vin de garage', given the artisanal nature of the processes, the still very small numbers and the decision to produce without the help of professional figures such as enologists or agronomists. Today three labels are produced: two reds made from Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio grapes from two different districts, and a white wine made from a blend of Carricante, Catarratto, Minnella and Grecanico grapes. These wines directly and sincerely express the terroir from which they come and can be defined as an original blend of volcanic minerality, made up of ferns and graphite, and Mediterranean bush consisting of shrubs, herbs and wild berries.