The Ferreri brother’s bet. From the province
of Trapani the wine of the Grotta Carsica
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Grapes collected by hand, wine stored in small chestnut tree barrels and labels that recall old traditions. All close to one of the most suggestive Sicilian landscapes. This is the recipe of the company Ferreri Bianco from Santa Ninfa, in the province of Trapani, that since 2001 decided not sell its grapes only to co-operative wineries, but also on the market.
“The processing of our monovarietal wines made us realize that our terroir produced very interesting products”, explained Rosario Ferreri, who runs the company together with his brother Mario and partner Vincenzo Bianco. “So, thanks to our excellent commercial and technical partners we managed to give our wines more space and visibility”.
Everything starts from our vineyards, that are located in six districts, between 250 and 500 metres above sea level, set in an area fraught with historical, naturalistic and architectural paths. From the Santa Ninfa Castle, a large rural village of the 1800s, to Simon Bolivar’s bronze bust, donated in 2001 to Santa Ninfa by the people who moved to Venezuela to pay tribute from their adopted homeland. But also 350 hectares of woods, with their endemic plant life and an anthropological museum that collects objects belonging to the faming tradition.
In more than 40 hectares of the 50 belonging to the company, the native grapes of Nero D’Avola, Catarratto, Inzolia, Zibibbo and Malvasia from the Aeolian islands, live together with international grapes such as Cabernet, Merlot and Chardonnay. Only the best wines are collected and processed at a controlled temperature, uniting tradition and innovation. An example are the two company crus, Brasi Bianco and Brasi Rosso. “The name Brasi is a tribute to our oenologist’s grandfather, whose name was Biagio and produced wine since the beginning of the 1900s”, explained Rosario Ferreri, “we decided to give this name to a Catarratto and a Nero D’Avola, which are stored in chestnut-tree barrels, just like in the past”.
The names of the other wines recall the territory. “The monovarietal Cabernet sauvignon, the Karren, takes its name from a very particular crystal chalk rock which is located in the natural reserve of Monte Finestrelle”, continued Rosario, “and it is also well-known amongst speleologists, so much so that Santa Ninfa is also called the town of the Grotta Carsica”.
“Another monovarietal Nero D’Avola is the Al Merat, which takes its name from the village “Rahal Al Merat”, meaning “the women’s village”, founded by the first Arabs who settled in Sicily in the area of Santa Ninfa, where two thirds of the population was made up of women”.
The Ferreri wines are appreciated both on the local and international market, from Holland to Germany and Luxemburg. “And recently”, ended the manager, “also in England, the United Stated and the eastern European countries”.
Azienda Agricola Ferreri & Bianco. Contrada Salinella sn - 91029 Santa Ninfa (Tp). Telephone: 0039 092 461871. Email: info@ferreri.it; website: www.ferrerivini.it.
Translated by Chiara Nunnari from John Milton Institute
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