Introducing The Single Estate Sicilian Organic Winery – Santa Tresa

This week we took on an amazing wine from the award-winning Sicilian Organic wine estate – Santa Tresa

The ancient Santa Tresa estate near Vittoria in south-east Sicily was purchased by Stefano Girelli and his sister Marina back in 2002 with the aim of restoring the land to its former glory and to convert the estate to be a producer of high quality, authentic, certified organic wine. They make some of the finest single estate organic wine on the island by use of organic farming.

Stefano believes that by working hand in hand with nature, he will not only leave a long-standing legacy of a fully sustainable organic agriculture estate, but the quality and character of the wines benefits greatly as a result.

Work at Santa Tresa takes a completely holistic approach and they are constantly giving something back where ever possible, and planning for the long-term. Stefano and his team have recently introduced a colony of bees to the estate to aid pollination and to produce organic honey. For centuries olive trees have been grown on the estate as well as orange, lemon and almond trees, giving just the right balance. Five small gardens have been established on the estate in order to experiment with vines and grow a selection of magnificent local herbs and flowers. With these gardens, they are creating the perfect environment for the “right” insects to flourish.

The maintenance of the ancient wells on the estate and the implementation of an eco-friendly system of moving water from a local reservoir enables Santa Tresa to irrigate their vines in a very controlled manner when necessary. All the grapes are hand harvested with great care. Vinification follows a similarly meticulous, careful regime in order to ensure that the pure, natural fruit flavours are retained.

The spirit of adventure led Stefano to believe that Sicily was capable of producing its very own version of Prosecco, and he began making ‘Il Grillo Spumante’ using the richer, tropical fruit palate of Grillo to emphasise the boldness of Sicily and create a wine that is leading the way in not only organic wine production but also sparkling wine production.

I bet you’re probably asking yourself; What is organic farming all about?

I am sure there are many ways to answer this, but in a non-winemaker way, I can explain this. Organic wine is produced using minimal bad chemicals in the production of the wine. A certified organic wine will be made by passionate winemakers that really keep in-line with organic farming. These farmers nurture the land using animals to fertilise the grapes, and also in the production of the harvest. As an example; using horses to carry the trailers rather than using a fuel powered tractor – where fumes might leak into the organic production. Long and short of it, organic wines are produced using as minimal intervention as possible, therefore producing excellent quality wine, which will hopefully give you less of an allergy.

Plus, let us just add how organic wine amazingly goes with some food. Be sure to check out the food and organic wine pairings we listed.

So, if this sounds like a good option and a trend to follow then the Santa Tresa is a wine for you – Organic, Sicily and adventure!

To grab yourself some stunning natural and organic sparkling wines, check out our sparkling wines section.

To your good health.