VINUDILICE – Rosé Wine from Northwest ETNA

VINUDILICE is a rosé that arises directly from the vineyard itself. This wine a blend of the white and red grapes that grow there, harvested and vinified together. Vineyard cultivation is done by hand and with a Mule, using natural products. Biotechnologies are not used in winemaking. Transfer and bottling are carried out according to the phases of the moon. In vintages in which the wine, due to weather conditions, does not naturally reach an alcohol content of 11%, we produce a sparkling version using metodo classico with bottle fermentation on the yeasts for at least 17 months.
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.