| |  | Duca di Salaparuta | |
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Just outside of Palermo is one of the oldest of
the island's wineries, Duca di Salaparuta, an esteemed and historic winery founded in 1824
by Guiseppe Alliata, Prince of Villafranca and Duke of Salaparuta. In the last several years,
the winery underwent a modernization process under the guidance of renowned winemaker
Carlo Casavecchia, which not only brought it into the 21st Century, but also raised the bar
for other Sicilian wineries.
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| |  | Planeta | |
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For many generations the Planeta family has been dedicated to farming in the area of Sambuca
di Sicilia and Menfi, in the province of Agrigento. The future production of wine began
in 1985 on the shores of Lake Arancio, near Sambuca where the Planeta family has concentrated
on three important goals: to gain recognition of the indigenous grape varieties, to adapt
the best international wines to the particular conditions of Sicily and restore
the fascinating and historic Sicilian D.O.C. Near the winery we also find an historical
Baglio from the XVIth century where Planeta receives the guests for the wine tasting.
Alessio, Francesca and Santi Planeta, began their wine-making venture at Ulmo,
set off by the Arancio lake. Now there are more than 50 cultivated hectares with
the stone farmhouse used as operational headquarters. They currently have vines and
vinification cellars in three other strategic points on the island: Menfi, Vittoria
and Noto.
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| |  | Feudo Principi di Butera | |
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The Feudo Principi di Butera estate once belonged to the noble Branciforte and Lanza
di Scalea dynasties. Ambrogio Branciforte was, in 1543, the first Sicilian to be named
a Prince. The estate is located in the heart of Sicily (The California of Italy),
and is the most ambitious investment ever undertaken by the Zonin family. Feudo
Principi di Butera, designed by the architect Matteini and by the technologist Paolucci,
was built by Zonin to fill the needs of the third millenium. It was therefore planned
in order to vinify using the most advanced technology and so that the winery could be
perfectly integrated into the extraordinarily beautiful surrounding countryside.
The hours of sun that the grapes enjoy during the course of the year is unequalled
in any other temperate zone on earth. The vineyards are situated on hillsides at an
altitude of between 250 and 350 meters above sea level, and are planted on white soil
of limestone origin, rich in organic matter, that encourages a correct balance of
vegetation and fruit in the vines. The principal grape variety of the estate is
the Nero D’Avola.
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| |  | Murgo | |
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The Murgo estate is situated in a privileged position on the eastern slopes of Etna
at an altitude of 500 meters above sea level and has been making wines traditional
to this territory since 1850. In 1981 Baron Emanuele Scammacca del Murgo modernized
the estate to optimize the quality of his wines, and his sons Michele, Pietro, and Matteo
focus on that same goal in their daily work in the vineyards and cellar. The unique
conditions created by the volcano make for wines with unusual finesse, aromatic complexity,
and strong personality.
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| |  | Villa di Maser | |
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The Villa was built between 1550 and 1560 by Andrea Palladio for Daniele Barbaro,
Patriarch of Aquileia, and his brother Marcantonio Ambassador of the Venetian Republic,
transforming the medieval palace of Maser into a splendid country residence, masterpiece
of the Venetian Reneissance. The present Winery adjacent to the Villa was built in 1850
by the owner of the Villa at the time, Sante Giacomelli. It is organized on three
levels. Storage on the first floor, wine making on the ground floor, ageing underground.
The winery exclusively processes grapes grown in the 35 hectares of vineyard that
surround the Villa, registered in the D.O.C. “Montello e Colli Asolani,” located on the
hillside, optimally exposed to south and south-east. The soil is limestone-moraine,
rich in skeleton, ideal for the growth of vines that are currently trained in Guyot
and produce few grapes per plant.
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| |  | Nardini | |
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In 1779, Bortolo Nardini moved from Trentino to Bassano - the ancient town situated
at the foot of Monte Grappa in Veneto - bringing with him special expertise of distilling
in double-bottomed copper stills. Bortolo sited his grapperia on Bassano's famous bridge
on the River Brenta, where it remains to this day as a shop and a museum as well as a bar,
popular with locals and visitors alike. Today, the Nardini family distills grappa using
exactly the same methods that Bortolo pioneered, albeit producing much larger quantities
from two sites close to Bassano.
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| |  | Val d'Oca | |
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Located at the foot of the Veneto's Pre-Alps, in the delightful hilly region between
Asolo and Conegliano, the Cantina Produttori di Valdobbiadene was founded in 1952 by
a handful of wine growers with a strong belief in the benefits of cooperation. Today
the cooperative is sustained by 600 producers, who for generations have tended over 600
hectares of vineyard, much of which lies on hills.
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| |  | Tedeschi | |
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The Tedeschi family has been active in the field of wine growing and producing
in the Valpolicella area for five generations. Nicolò Tedeschi founded the firm
in 1824, stipulating the first deed of sale of some vineyards. Four generations
have followed on, starting with Lorenzo and then Riccardo. Riccardo's sons, Silvino
and Renzo, have been in control during much of the the Twentieth Century, with the
former completely dedicated to the meticulous care of the vines, the latter committed
to making the wine and carrying on, together with his wife Bruna, the "Tedeschi style,"
making the family business known in Italy and around the world. Renzo remains principal
Tedeschi today. The family cultivates 67 ha of vines located in the central Valpolicella
Classico region. The Tedeschi vineyards are found on the most favourable slopes of the
foothills of the Lessinia Mountains, on varying terroirs of limestone and basalt, in
clay or volcanic soils, and with typical altitude of 130-250 m. While he has a deep
respect for tradition, paying attention to the long peasant heritage of experience
and knowledge, represented by the phases of the moon, and by the imperceptible signs
given each year by the vines, Renzo has introduced innovative and rational elements
capable of making his wines even better.
The most recent generation of the Tedeschi family is today represented by his children,
Antonietta, Sabrina and Riccardo, the first responsible for sales in Italy and
administration, the second a food technician and for years a researcher at the Institute
of San Michele all'Adige, and the third an oenologist, dealing with production
and sales outside Italy.
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| |  | Zonin | |
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Today, almost two centuries after the Zonins’ first winery was founded at Gambellara
in 1821, the family owns and operates 11 vineyard estates in all of Italy’s most
important vine-growing regions. The modern growth of the company was initiated in 1957,
by today’s President, Gianni Zonin, who has dedicated all of his energy and passion
to producing wines of ever higher quality while creating the largest vineyard holding
(4.500 acres) in Italy. At the center of the Zonin universe is the land, the soils
of the estates – which yield some of the greatest Italian wines – and particularly
those at Gambellara, where this family of small farmers has steadily handed down,
from one generation to the next, a sense of the vine’s life and its beauty.
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