Pellegrino Passito Pantelleria Liquoroso

Intro to Pellegrino Passito Pantelleria Liquoroso –

Pellegrino Passito Pantelleria Liquoroso golden yellow tending to amber with an intense aroma with scents of apricots, honey and dried figs. Palate: balanced and honeyish, with notes of dried figs and light hints of apricots and sweet fruit pickles.

 Full tasting note and wine making –

The family are also the leading producer of Pantelleria DOC sweet wines. These luscious passito styles made from Zibibbo are widely regarded as Italy’s finest sweet wines. They are produced on the tiny, volcanic island of Pantelleria which lies 100km southwest of Sicily and 60km east of the Tunisia. Here viticulture has been practiced for 2,500 years and incredibly the method remains virtually unchanged. To provide shelter from island’s high winds the vines are head trained into bush vines and grown in small hollows in the soil known as ‘Conca’. The vineyard is then encircled by a dry stone wall made from the island’s black volcanic rock. This ancient practice received UNESCO world heritage status in 2014. Pellegrino have invested heavily in viticulture on the island, building a state of the art winery at great expense in 1992. Today they are responsible for 80% of all the grapes produced on Pantelleria.

Fermentation at a controlled temperature of 16°C, followed by fortification with wine rectified spirit. Aging in stainless steel vats at controlled temperature for 5 months.

The producer –

Cantine Pellegrino is one of Sicily’s most important and prosperous wineries. Today they are one of very few families who can trace their lineage back to the original 19th Century founders of the Marsala trade.

Over the years the Pellegrino family married into the Alagna, Renda, Tumbarello & Bellina families, who today collectively manage the company. Pietro Alanga is Pellegrino’s President and Benedetto Renda its CEO. Recently they welcomed the 6th generation to the family business. In 1880 Paolo Pellegrino, local notary and vine grower, founded his winery in the heart of the city of Marsala on the West coast of Sicily. With the help of his son Carlo, he built the company up from nothing into one of Sicily’s leading Marsala producers. After the death of his father, Carlo took the reigns of the company, assisted by his wife Josephine Despagne, daughter of a famous Sauternes oenologist Oscar Pierre Despagne. Josephine brought with her a wealth of winemaking knowledge and together they continued to build the company. Today the company has 150 hectares of vineyards, and 3 wineries all of which are solar powered. Pellegrino have been instrumental in putting Sicily on the winemaking map, with the family’s Marsala, fine wine and sweet Pantelleria wine, all of which are exported around the world.

Drink with –

Try with  Sicilian traditional dry pastries, pandoro, panettone or enjoy with Pecorino cheese with orange pickles.