The Cucurullo family

Sicily, Italy

Sicily is Italy's largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and is known for its rich natural environment. It boasts a diverse natural environment, including volcanic areas such as Mount Etna, a beautiful coastline surrounded by blue seas, and plains covered with olive and citrus fruits.

In Sicily, many unique wines are produced using local varieties such as Nero d'Avola and Catarratto, and are characterized by their rich and full flavor. The grapes grown in the natural environment of Sicily and the wines made from them are attracting wine lovers from all over the world.

The Cucurullo family's domain and vineyards

The Cucurullo family has been farming in the heart of Sicily for four generations. Francesco's father was an agricultural manager who established five businesses, including a food company, and was one of the earliest farmers to adopt organic farming in the 1990s.

The family ran a vineyard as part of their business, but at the time it was simply growing and wholesaling grapes to larger wineries.

Meanwhile, Francesco and his sister Carolina, who had always loved wine and had visited other wineries to learn about winemaking, began researching winemaking using their own grapes. Francesco's winemaking was a success, and he began making full-fledged organic wines.

In Sicily, where the mainstream is mass-produced, industrial, and cheap wine using easy-to-sell varieties such as Merlot and Syrah, Francesco and his family inherited his father's philosophy of organic farming and aimed to make high-quality wine using local indigenous varieties and careful home brewing. They now convey the appeal of organic wine to guests who visit their facility, which was restored from an old farmhouse.

Organic history : Since the 1990s

When Francesco's father, Salvatore, started organic farming in the 1990s, it was a time when consumers and major industrial winemakers were not paying much attention to organic farming. Salvatore chose environmentally friendly organic farming as his winemaking philosophy.

The current head of the family, Francesco, has inherited his father's ideas, but he also believes that rather than simply thinking that "it's good because it's organic," the wine should be delicious above all else, and that organic should be an added value.

In recent years, even large manufacturers have begun to produce industrial organic wines, and Francesco is very concerned about this. He is worried that organic wines will be distributed for marketing purposes only with the aim of increasing sales, without considering quality or fair prices.

"Being organic is not just about trends or marketing, but is an added value to quality. Communicating this fact is necessary for the development of organic culture."

・White grapes : Grillo
・Black grapes : Nero d'Avola, Syrah

Field soil

The Cucurullo family is located in the agricultural heart of Sicily. The land has been cultivated for over a century, and the fertile soil is home to a variety of crops. The Cucurullo family not only grows grapes, but also fruit trees such as peaches, prunes and apricots, as well as wheat, hay and olive oil. The vineyard covers 12 hectares, and the total area, including other crop fields, is 120 hectares.

The vineyards on the hill at an altitude of 480m have a mild climate, which is well suited to organic grape cultivation. Also, due to the temperature difference of up to 12 degrees between day and night, Francesco's wines have a more elegant finish than the typical heavy red wines from Sicily.

The geology is 50% clay and 50% limestone. The clay gives the wine its power and concentration, while the limestone gives it its acidity and elegance.

Characteristics of cultivation methods etc.

・All harvesting is done by hand

Characteristics of brewing method

As an agricultural family, the Cucurullo family values ​​the most in winemaking: studying and getting to know the characteristics of the land and climate, and the potential of each plot of the vineyard. They produce high-quality grapes, then work with the winemaking team to choose the right harvest time ( We are considering hand-picking the entire lot.

The Cucurullo family ferments grapes from different plots separately and decides what kind of wine to make based on the quality of each cuvée. They pay particular attention to maintaining the structure and quality of the aroma, tannins, acidity, etc. This allows the wine to reflect the flavor of the land and has both elegance and longevity.

The Cucurullo family is so confident in the quality of the grapes they produce that they have decided to reduce the work they do in the winery as much as possible.

To maintain the quality of the grapes, I've been doing the following for about four years now.
1. Use more mature grapes
2. Minimize movement between tanks and barrels
3. Filtration should be kept to a minimum
4. Clarification is kept to a minimum for white wines and not done for red wines.

We use minimal filtration and clarification to achieve the desired wine flavor, but we only use vegan-certified non-animal products for fining.

From the producers to everyone in Japan

The rewarding part of making organic wine is the love and passion for nature, and the connections and exchanges with people from different cultures and countries. My dream for the future is to pass on to my family and the members of the winery the values ​​I inherited from my parents, such as respect, honesty, and humility, that were born through organic farming.

Next, we want to protect our land and facilities and pass them on to the next generation in the future.

We invite you to try our wines, the product of the hard work of four generations of agricultural entrepreneurs, crafted with a passionate organic culture and philosophy.