Os Goliardos - Vinhos de Terroir Europeus

As in a fairy tale, when we arrived to visit the Masseria, we had the feeling of arriving at a house in an enchanted forest closed to the world with high gates that only occasionally open to others. We had aroused our curiosity through goliardo João about this farm, quite hidden at the foot of Etna and which cultivates discretion in autarky. After the doors were open, we were quickly dazzled by the magic of the place and by the human warmth of Federica and Cesare.
In 2005, Federica Turillo and Cesare Fulvio, Sicilians native to Catania, changed their lives, leaving their respective professions of archery instructor and air pilot to dedicate themselves to agricultural life. They found in the Masseria del Pino the place to live more serenely, in harmony with nature and self-sufficient. Around Randazzo, at an altitude of 800 m, they grabbed 400 olive trees and a little less than 2 ha of vines over 120 years old, essentially in free standing, with the white varieties Minella, Carricante, Catarratto, Pizzutella, and Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Capuccio in red. In addition to the vineyards themselves, since 2019, in the Bronte area, more famous for the production of pistachios, they have also cultivated a 75-year-old Garnacha vineyard that the owners could no longer keep up with. The natural cultivation of the vines, dug manually and fertilized and treated with animal manure and prepared products based on plants, ash and natural sulfur that they themselves produce, continues in the cellar with a vinification process that uses the old palm (traditional Sicilian press where the wine was pressed by a long wooden beam) to tread the un-de-stemmed grapes that ferment in 500 l vats that can be oak or chestnut. The use of sulfur dioxide is parsimonious or nil. Free thinkers, Federica and Cesare are reflective and determined people who managed to create a nest where harmony is expressed in all the productive components approached as a whole. The wines Caravan Petrol (white), SuperLuna (rosé), I Nove fratelli (Red), and the more recent Rosso Miriam (red) reveal a rare depth of expression and at the same time a sapid and fluid line that gives light to the mythical terroir of the Etna. Taking care of every detail, the poetic labels are imagined by Federica and complete the entire production process in beauty.