VINUDILICE – Rosé Wine from Northwest ETNA
INFORMATION
Contrada: Nave in the municipality of Bronte – Western Etna at 1,200 m a.s.l.
Plot: VignaBosco, the highest vineyard in Etna (and perhaps in Italy)!
Varieites: Granache, Minnella Nera, Grecanico, Minnella Bianca and other grape varieties.
Number vines (approx..): 5,000
Area of plot in hectares (approx.): 0.50
Vine density per hectare: 10,000, with terracing
Vineyard age: Centenarian
Vineyard training: Alberello Etneo with chestnut posts
Kg of selected grapes produced on average per hectare: 8,500
Litres of wine produced on average per hectare: 5,000
Number of 0.75L bottles total produced in an average vintage: 3,000
Harvest period: Last third of October – First part of November
Winemaking: Direct pressing of whole grapes with static and natural settling of the must for about 30 hours
Yeast: Autochtonous yeast in pied de cuve
Duration of alcoholic fermentation: 16 days
Refining: in steel tanks for 5 months
Filtration: only during bottling
Clarification: natural settling
Number of rackings: 3
Addition of sulphur dioxide: NO
Average alcohol content: 12.0%
Average total acidity, grams per litre: 8.5 g/l
Average pH: 2.95
Total sulphur in the newly bottled wine on average: 25 (mg/l)
Bottling: in the month of May, following the harvest.
First Production Year: 2011
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MAP OF THE VINEYARD
As the crow flies, the vineyard is:
10 Km from the Central Crater of Mt. Etna and 26 Km form the Ionian Sea.
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VignaBosco is the only vineyard in the area, located in a wild, uncontaminated part of Mt. Etna, rich in biodiversity. At least ten different grape varieties, white and red, have coexist for over a hundred years together. Vinudilice takes its name from the extensive oak forest surrounding the vineyard. In Latin the holm oak is called Quercus Ilex, or Ilice in Sicilian. The word Vinudilice means Wine of the Lecci, or the wine of the holm oak forest.
Average yearly rainfall: 1,100 mm
Soil: volcanic, characterized by a lava patch covering a large area. There are “outcrops” of Lava and pyroclasticis with degraded surface morphology” (Geological Map of Mt. Etna, CNR 1979), where paedogenetic processes, favoured by mildly depressed morphology (a gully) have generated a soil that is not excessively deep and quite rich in skeleton.