OUR NATURAL WHITE WINE
WHAT IS A NATURAL WINE?
NATURAL WINES ARE made only with organic/biodynamic grapes, without adding or subtracting anything in the cellar. No additives, no chemicals, no aromas, no selected yeasts, low sulfur, that’s it.
MODUS BIBENDI GRILLO 17 from Grillo grapes
GRAPES VARIETY: Grillo (100%)
SOIL clay calcareous - AGEING 7 months in stainless steel tin
WINEMAKING natural, spontaneous fermentation
VINTAGES AVAILABLE: 2017 (MODUS BIBENDI GRILLO), 2018 (MODUS BIBENDI BIANCO), 2019 (MODUS BIBENDI BIANCO)
fig. 1: in the photo the MODUS BIBENDI BIANCO 2018
the idea: WHY WE DECIDED TO MAKE a GRILLO natural WINE
Grillo is one of the most interesting native Sicilian grapes, though difficult to grow and manage. Its very name “Grillo”, which in Italian means grasshopper, indicates the “hopping” nature of the variety, which often does not ripen uniformly and so the production of wine is not constant.
In the past it was “not respected” as a grape since it was harvested when over-ripe and used for blending in the production of Marsala, or vinified in small amounts, in imitation of French wines produced with Sauvignon blanc to cater for international tastes.
When we set our sights on the Grillo grapes cultivated in the Camporeale vineyard back in 2015, we decided to make it into the wine it is, Grillo, and not as a high grade or as a Sauvignon blanc. We wanted to give those grapes - and therefore the wine - a very clear identity, obtaining a medium-bodied wine with good acidity, well-balanced with its alcohol content. It has an aromatic profile reminiscent of the Mediterranean maquis rather than tropical fruit.
This is our way of interpreting Grillo and we strongly believe in its revival, but only if it is naturally vinified for what it really is, without copying French models.
THE VARIETY: GRILLO
Created by an artificial crossing of Catarratto Bianco and Zibbibo (Moscato di Alessandria) in Agrigento, Sicily in 1869 by Baron Antonio Mendola, an agronomist and expert of grape varieties, Grillo is nowadays one of the most cultivated varieties in Sicily, after the Catarratto.
Grillo is not an aromatic or flavored grapes, but at its best it is full-bodied, earthy almost to the point of astringency, and can be bottle-aged to benefit. It will have a creamy feel, though with good acidity, and a sense of faint and indistinct but broad-spectrum fruit flavors, tending toward the citrus-y. Balsamic notes and nuts if aged “sur lies”.
The biotypes are known simply as “A” and “B”, and are described thus (from Giampiero Nadali):
Biotype A has a compact cluster, high productivity, produces a concentration of musts with low sugar, low pH, high acidity, wines have notes of citrus and vegetables; it corresponds to the modern Grillo wines that we appreciate fresh;
Biotype B has a loose bunch, low productivity, produces musts with a high sugar concentration, high pH, low acidity, wines have great structure, with descriptors notes of spice and tropical fruit; it corresponds to the Grillo that already existed before the arrival of the British in Marsala (1770), a vine that produces 18 degrees alcohol at the harvest “naturally”, that is, without the need for any fortification.
[variety info credits: thatusefulwinesite.com & Robin Kick MV]
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TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE OTHER WINES
MODUS BIBENDI NERO D’AVOLA
MODUS BIBENDI BIANCO MACERATO FROM ZIBIBBO/CATARRATTO/GRILLO
KATAMACERATO FROM CATARRATTO
GLOU GLOU ROSSO FROM
NERELLO MASCALESE