SANTAMARIALANAVE - Key Persons
At SantaMariaLaNave, we consider the vinification a non-invasive process, which should completely respect the nature of the vine variety and the properties of the vintage. This philosophy is perfectly carried out through the work of the enologist Enzo Calì. Enzo, born in 1975, has already done approximately 20 harvests as an enologist and wine technician. His parents were farmers and he has been deeply immersed in the Etnean agriculture since he was born. He has been fascinated by harvests and vinification since he was a little kid and soon he completely devoted himself to this deep passion, which prompted him to choose a related course of studies and then to become a full time enologist, dedicating his whole life to the study of Etnean wines.
Enzo has collaborated with prestigious enologists and researchers and has undertaken several projects of experimental vinification, especially on Nerello Mascalese, and of sparkling winemaking with metodo classico, using local grapes of Mount Etna. Enzo truly loves the Grecanico Dorato: "The Grecanico Dorato is a creative and fierce expression of Mount Etna. It presents an olfactory complexity with a fresh acidity and a strong and deep mineral structure. These grapes taste like Mount Etna. I want to allow the refined personality of our volcano to emerge at every sip."
Furthermore, Enzo has been working on the selection of local yeasts for a decade. We owe to his work some of the most award winning wines in the Etnean area, but despite this he keeps using the very same ingredients that represent the foundation of the success of his products: hard work, passion and a great respect for the grapes and their history. Enzo always says: "I try to instil my experience and my passion in the wines I work on. I think they are successful only when their colour, their fragrance and their taste are the mirror of their vine varieties, of their territory and of their vintage. I don't change nature; I don't enslave it to cosmetic processes. I respect it and I want this to emerge through my wines". We are truly honoured to have Enzo taking care of our wines.
Job Titles:
- Società Agricola Santa Maria La Nave Di
Vines, like every other living being, need their natural environment to be respected in order to express their vitality in full. That's why knowing the specific characteristics of a territory, of its microclimate and of the local plants is critical to grow healthy and abundant bunches. The care of our vineyard is entrusted to the experience of Vincenzo Avellina, who we have known for more than twenty years. He was born and still lives in the near Maletto, very close to our plants, and is local just as much as our Grecanico Dorato. Vincenzo has always been close to Contrada Nave and Grecanico Dorato, he knows its biologic cycles and its reaction to the various weather phenomenon and pruning.
He is the son of Salvatore Avellina, called il Mazzola, who was famous in Maletto for his dancing skills. Vincenzo took part in the first harvests when he was just a little kid, since his father owned a small patch of land in the highest area of the Contrada. Up there about 700 plants were growing, mostly of Grecanico Dorato, which in certain area of Mount Etna is still called "Coda di Volpe", fox tail, for its elongated shape and its pinkish colour. At that time, on the day of a harvest, the people from Maletto left their village riding on mules or horses, bringing all the necessary equipment and their family with them. The harvest was handmade, just as today, and the bunches were put into wicker baskets called "panari" and then relocated in bigger wicker chests called "cufini". Vincenzo still brings his cufini to our harvest. We measured them and discovered that a cufino can hold the content of approximately six of today's crates, more than a hundred kilograms of grapes.
Around 50 years ago, the Mazzola left Maletto on his mule, burdened with panari, which during the outward journey were filled with the day supplies, and with two cufini, one on each side, which held two children each. Mazzola's wife, like all the other ladies that, at that time, used to help their husbands during the harvests, took turns with him on the mule, in order not to weigh it down too much. When she followed him on foot, she alleviated the hardship of the road letting the mule pull her onwards while tying her hand to its tail (and maybe that's the origin of the Italian word "accodarsi", which means "to queue up"). When he was a little boy, Vincenzo shared the journey in a cufino with his brother. At their return, they brought the bunches to a small millstone nearby and started pressing it with a hammer press, which could be used only by four people together.