Heat, earth, air, initiatives, ideas, actions: Nature and Man are inseparably joined in the creation of that unique and often irreducible phenomenon that is wine. Different places, different men make wines that are unique: the wine in the glass is the very image and expression of that diversity.
It is often a unique air, whose constituents cannot be teased out, that develops into a long, complex score orchestrated by time.
We have been formed by our experience of the wines of Sicily and by the richly diverse vineyards that chequer its landscapes. It is our goal to craft wines which embody the light, the scents, and the flavours of those sites. We know we have succeeded when our senses capture, in the glass, the sensations we have experienced in those places, when it becomes the sounding box that transmits our efforts.
Ignazio Miceli, the winery's founder, had us constantly conducting blind tastings of our wines and those of others, in order to sharpen our critical facilities and to instil even greater passion and enthusiasm for creating important, forward-looking wines.
He is no longer with us, but his cousin Giuseppe Lo Re today bears the standard, flanked by Gianni Tartaglia; thus, the same team continues his work. Men may pass, but the dream often remains--so it has been with us.
A wine takes years to reach the glass but the glass is always its final test, and we will look, as we always have, into the glass to catch the light of Dimina or the fragrances of Rekale or the energy of Bukkuram. But the possibilities are endless, and the reality of Sicily so complex, that one conceives an idea, a plan, and begins from there, continuing forward to its realisation.

The Wineries

We chose three different locales: Sciacca in the Scunchipani area for the first winery, Dimina in the Castelvetrano area for the vineyards, and Rekale on Pantelleria. Three different locations whose individual challenges we could meet with a common component: the same men and the same company, plus the ability to realise the potential of the vineyards in each environment to create great wines.
Dimina hosts the vines, 32 hectares of vineyard planted to six grape varieties: merlot, cabernet, syrah, gross manseng, petit verdot, and viognier.
Scunchipani is the facility where we receive Dimina's fruit and transform it into wine, adopting different approaches at different times for interpreting nature and its harvest. We bring here as well grapes from other areas, such as nero d'Avola and grillo.
Rekale is located in the southern part of Pantelleria. Here we bring in zibibbo grapes from all parts of the island, including those from our experimental vineyards planted to 65 different grape varieties. The zibibbo grapes are sun-dried here for the production of our DOC passito wines.

Pantelleria


The Rodo family estate on Pantelleria took root between the late 19th century and the mid-20th. Besides the stone family homes, or dammusi, it had all the accoutrements for the traditional agricultural activities: olive press, grain mill, animal barn, and winecellar. In the 1950s it was enlarged with another winecellar, with cement vats dug into the volcanic tuff.
Aziende Vinicole Miceli totally rebuilt this complex in 1995. The restored dammusi are now used for guests and promotional events. The cellars have been given the latest equipment in stainless steel, all temperature-controlled. The old vats seated in the tuff today hold 110 barriques for lengthy ageing of our DOC passito, or dried-grape, wines.
The general practice of cool-temperature processing of the must immediately after de-stemming has maximized, even in the fullest-bodied passito wines, the aromas and flavours of the grapes, their fragrances and fresh characteristics, in addition to the classic qualities of the ripe or semi-dried grapes. This has improved the complexity and concentration of all our wines produced from the zibibbo grape. Cool-temperature techniques have made possible the creation of innovative and unique wines, such as a dry white zibibbo, our distinctive Yrnm.
At Rekale we use the zibibbo grape. Originally the muscat of Alexandria, it adapted itself so well and so uniquely to the harsh conditions of Pantelleria that it became a separate, individual grape variety. The vineyards are cultivated in the ancient "alberello pantesco" style: each vine is planted in a small hole and grows low on the ground, for protection from the winds and from the fierce heat of the day, and to better absorb the night time dew, a unique feature of the island's climate.
The Rekale winery also has an experimental vineyard at Bukkuram, planted in 1997 in collaboration with the Università di Milano. This has afforded us the opportunity of ascertaining how well 65 red-grape varieties are suited to the production of ultra high- quality DOC red wines.

Sciacca

The winery in Scunchipani area boasts an ultra-modern winemaking facility, with temperature-controlled steel fermenters, as well as a barrel cellar with over 450 300-litre casks of Allier and Troncais French oak, and a state-of-the-art bottling line. Lengthy bottle-ageing occurs there too, before the wines are released. All the wines are marketed and distributed by Mid Spa, Aziende Vinicole Miceli's parent company. Winemaker Filippo Di Giovanna reigns here, the creator of all the wines produced at Scunchipani. All of these wines spring from a carefully-crafted company programme, which begins with considering all the ramifications and details of an original idea, which is then carried out the following growing year.

The Wines
Southwest Sicily offers a rich variety of environments and growing areas that offer the opportunity to produce a range of nicely distinctive, expressive medium- and medium-high quality wines. Salgalaluna and Primoquarto communicate the distinctiveness of the grape varieties of the westernmost part of the island, the grillo of Marsala and the sangiovese of Mazzara del Vallo. The former is the historic variety for the production of DOC Marsala; its wonderful sensory richness led us to re-examine its potential. We began importing the second in the mid-1960s; adapting well to the environment, it produces wines that are soft and pleasantly fruity, but which demonstrate good structure and depth as well.
Organza and Fiammato emerged in 1997 as modern, innovative wines, meeting the challenge of crafting velvety, attractive wines from the inzolia and nero d'Avola grapes grown in different locations.
We have been producing Ligorio since 1976. Millions of bottles are distributed by our company, Mid Miceli, throughout the world. Ligorio is a classic, contemporary Sicilian wine with an outstanding price-quality relationship. The white is a blend of inzolia and grecanico, while the red is made from the nero d'Avola; both are classically Sicilian but at the same time modern, representing new directions in island winemaking. All of the grapes are sourced from the area bounded by Sciacca, Menfi, and Castelvetrano.