The excellences of the Sicans
From Bivona to Australia
natural and organic wines
with Arbëresh names
Di Salvo winery has been making wine
for four generations
and bottling since 2016
A small production
of great quality and prestige
A small production of great quality and prestige that flies all the way from Sicily to Australia. These are the natural and organic wines of thefamily-run farm of Andrea Di Salvo and Maria Cristina Di Leo, in Bivona, in the heart of the Sicani. A history, that of the company, four generations long and that goes back to great-grandfather Onofrio who, on his return from the United States, where he had emigrated, bought the lands that today are the focus of Andrea and his wife Maria Cristina’s activity.
In all, about fifteen hectares planted with vineyards and olive groves, because in these parts they also produce excellent extra virgin olive oil with the Biancolilla, Cerasuola and Murtiddara cultivars.
The real passion, however, are the wines. Natural wines produced with organic grapes: in fact, since 2008, the company has held organic certification. A certification that is the result of a path that has always been oriented towards the most genuine production possible.
“When you drink a glass of our wine,” says Andrea Di Salvo, “you are drinking the territory. We don’t use yeast, we don’t use filtration: ours is a natural wine. In our family, we have always made it this way; my grandfather sold it in bulk, we have been bottling it since 2016.”
Andrea took over the reins of the company in 1999, and in these twenty-five years the business has changed pace: the company has been equipped with more modern and efficient equipment and, now, even a new wooden press, built by Andrea himself.
Production varies from ten thousand to fifteen thousand bottles per year; Inzolia, Perricone, Nero d’Avola and Catarratto, the grape varieties grown that give rise to wines with distinctive names.
“We chose,” says Andrea Di Salvo, “to use Arbëresh names, as a tribute to my father’s great-grandmother who was from Palazzo Adriano and was simply called ‘the Greek’ here in Bivona; a way of remembering and remarking on our family’s Albanian origins.”
And, thus, there is Marì, a Catarratto macerated seven days with a significant alcohol content, 13 degrees, whose name is inspired by that of Andrea’s wife, “Who,” he says, “I call, in fact, simply Marì.
Then, there is Lule, which means “floral” and is an Inzolia; then, Harè, “joy,” a rosé produced with Nero d’Avola; Lihàr, “light,” the name of the white produced with a Catarratto fermented twenty-four hours, a fresh white “and called that way,” says Andrea Di Salvo, “because we conceived it during the Covid pandemic, a decidedly dark period that we thus wanted to exorcise. Also made with Nero d’Avola is Deshur, which means “passion”; while Perricone gives birth to Zezë, “black,” meaning “njuru cani,” black dog, as the elders in these parts call the Perricone grape variety.
Wines from the family-run Di Salvo winery are distributed mainly in Sicily , and mostly in eastern Sicily, in wine bars and restaurants; “but,” Andrea says, “we have a distributor who also gets them to Australia and the Amalfi Coast.
A niche, high quality production that was born in a small winery made, a bit like the French do (which is why they are called garagists), in a nice sixty-square-meter garage.
Paladins of natural wines, Andrea Di Salvo and Maria Cristina Di Leo again this year participated in the Cerea fair, in the province of Verona, dedicated to “True Wines,” and in several similar fairs throughout the Boot. Last appointment, in order of time, these days in Sicily, at Teruar, fair of ethical wine in Scicli.
Meanwhile, in Bivona, the adventure continues: in the pipeline is the project of a new planting for Inzolia: “We want,” says Andrea Di Salvo, “to focus on this vine and enhance it as much as possible, because in Sicily there is little of it and there are only a couple of wineries that vinify it in purity.
Text by Angela Mannino
