Francesco Guccione
SICILY
Sicily, on its high slopes and subjected to the fresh winds of the seaside, offers remarkable surprises, far from the mass of unexciting wines which unfortunately characterizes the reputation of the island. In the North-West of Sicily, in the hinterland of Palermo in the territory of Monreale, Francesco Guccione belongs to this young generation of winegrowers who offer a strong image of the authenticity of their terroir.
In the 2000s, Francesco Guccione took over the reins of the agricultural-wine estate that his father had converted to organic farming in the 90s, and he soon made the choice to evolve towards biodynamics and to vinify and bottle his production, signing his first vintage in 2012. The 10 ha of the estate – 6 ha of vines, as well as cereals – are located on the heights of the hills of the region of Monreale (province of Palermo), in a lieu-dit called Cerasa near the village of San Cipirello: the freshness of the marl-limestone soil and the fresh air brought by the altitude (around 500 m) and by the sea wind constitute favorable conditions for farming without chemical products. In the plots, Trebbiano dominates – a grape variety ubiquitous in its various forms in Italian vineyards – alongside the very Sicilian Catarratto, Perricone and Nerello Mascalese. In the cellar, vinification is as natural and minimally interventionist as possible, with only a small dose of sulfur added, to produce wines of remarkable sincerity and authenticity.
