The Scudieri family enters the Pantelleria area with the purchase of the historic Abraxas winery, enriching the island with an important player. Federico Latteri, a Sicilian taster and our correspondent, talked about it in Cronache di Gusto.
Abraxas, one of the most important companies on the island of Pantelleria with a successful past, now sees a new course thanks to the will of the Scudieri family to enhance valuable territories for wine production in Sicily and the rest of Italy.
The “Tenute Scudieri project“, carried out with the collaboration of the Cotarella Family, is based on the idea of recovering and preserving local agricultural practices and native crops. With a keen eye on the environmental sustainability. The winery is the beating heart of Abraxas, a building perfectly integrated into the surrounding landscape. The winery stands on the slopes of Montagna Grande, about 370 meters above sea level. The vineyards stretch for 16 hectares, distributed in different areas ranging from contrada Bukkuram to the heights of Vipera and Randazzo. Alongside Zibibbo (Moscato di Alessandria), the island’s main grape variety, allochthonous varieties such as Viognier, Syrah, Nero D’avola, Alicante and Cabernet Franc are grown. Currently 55,000 bottles a year are produced. The entire supply chain, from growing the vines to bottling, is carried out in Pantelleria.
The label range has 7 references who interpret the Pantelleria terroir both in the most classic way and with original and interesting wines. Two passiti, three reds, including one from late-harvest Nero d’Avola, a rosé and a dry white.
Passito di Pantelleria Sentivento 2017 Abraxas
We tasted the Passito di Pantelleria Doc Sentivento 2017 Abraxas, the wine that most represents the island with its unique traditions, scents and flavors. The wine is made from Zibibbo grapes from vineyards located on terraces facing south and southeast in the Bukkuram, Baron and Mueggen districts.. The soils tend to be sandy of volcanic nature. The training system used is the typical Pantelleria alberello, an agricultural technique that has been an intangible heritage of humanity for Unesco since 2014. Yields are about 50 quintals per hectare. After manual harvesting, a part of the grapes is put to dry in the sun (for about 20 days). The rest goes into vinification. Next, the raisins are added to the fermenting must and, having turned the desired amount of sugars, are left to macerate for a few weeks so that they can yield all of their aromatic complement.
A wine with ancient memories, sweet but balanced (read tasting sheet below). It can be paired with dry almond desserts, or with various types of aged and blue cheeses. It is also great on its own at the end of a meal or as a meditation wine.
TO READ THE WINE DESCRIPTIONS, WITH SCORE AND AVERAGE SHELF PRICE, CLICK ON THE TABS BELOW.
TASTINGS
