Mandrarossa Viognier 2024
The wine is yellow with golden hues. On the nose it has notes of ripe peaches and apricot. On the palate it is dry and savoury, with a great freshness which supports the excellent structure.
The vineyards for this wine are located around Menfi on the south-western coast of Sicily. The vines are grown on south and south-east facing slopes at altitudes of 150-350 metres above sea level. The soils are mainly silty sand with medium texture. Vines are Guyot trained and planted at a density of 4,000-4,500 plants per hectare.
After being crushed and destemmed, the grapes were immediately cooled to 5-8°C, and kept at these temperatures for a few hours. The must was then pressed and cold-settled for 36 hours. Fermentation took place in temperature-controlled stainless-steel tanks at 16-18°C. The wine was then kept in steel vats until bottling.
The Mandrarossa wines hail from a selection of the best sites within Cantine Settesoli’s 6,000 hectares of vineyard in southwestern Sicily, planted with 32 grape varieties. The vineyards are split between the cooperative's 2,000 members and cover the area around Selinunte, the hauntingly beautiful ruins of a Greek town founded 2,600 years ago. Cantine Settesoli helps support the restoration of this archaeological site.
First produced in 1999, Mandrarossa opened its own winery in 2021. They have one of the largest solar energy installations in the Italian winemaking sector, with their solar panels fuelling this completely sustainable winery, which is well integrated into the surrounding hills. Since then, Mandrarossa has increasingly focused on single-site wines after mapping the diverse soils of its vineyards and identifying its best sites.
Under the leadership of co-operative president Giuseppe Bursi, consultant winemaker Alberto Antonini has sought to improve viticulture, focusing on minimal intervention in the vineyards, resulting in better wines. Working with soil-mapping expert Pedro Parra and head winemaker Mimmo De Gregorio, Alberto has selected 500 hectares of vineyards from 160 growers to produce the Mandrarossa wines. These vineyards are close to the sea, where intense sunlight, moderating sea breezes, mild temperatures, multiple elevations and a myriad of different soil types combine to create the quality of grapes that Mimmo and Alberto are looking for. Pedro has also singled out limestone as the soil with the highest potential for quality wines.
Given the wealth of sites and varieties at their disposal, it isn’t surprising that Mandrarossa now has several different styles of wines. Their native varieties focus on Sicilian grapes such as Nero d’Avola, Grillo, Grecanico and dry Zibibbo. Their international varieties include Syrah, Chardonnay and Fiano, “the foreigner” from across the straits of Messina. The ‘Selection’ wines are named after different ‘contrade’, small districts within a commune whose wines have shown an individuality that warrants their own distinctive blend. The ‘Cartagho’ hails from a sandy vineyard in the Torrenova ‘contrada’, regarded as Sicily’s best source of Nero d’Avola.
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