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Alessandro Viola
Sicily, Italy5 wines4.0 avg
Alcamo-based natural-wine producer in western Sicily - Catarratto and Grillo as the serious grapes, spontaneous fermentation, and a credo borrowed from nature.
Alessandro Viola is a small estate in the hills around Alcamo, in Trapani province in western Sicily. Alessandro studied viticulture and oenology and worked as a consultant enologist in Italy and Europe - including time collaborating with Donato Lanati - before returning to his family's land to make his own wine. His father had been a grower making wine only for family use; Alessandro and his brother Aldo eventually split and took separate paths, both now producing under their own names.
The estate is around twelve hectares - some seven hectares in the inland valley around Pietra Rinosa, with parcels toward Santa Ninfa at about 250 metres, and a further five on the slopes of Monte Bonifato at 500-700 metres - planted to Catarratto (the signature of western Sicily, and his flagship grape), Grillo, Nero d'Avola, Nerello Mascalese, Perricone, and a little Syrah. Organic farming, indigenous varieties, old bush vines where possible.
The philosophy is stated flatly: Wine is made in the vineyard. Who are we to think we can do better than nature? Spontaneous fermentation with native yeasts. Unfiltered and unfined bottling. Minimal to no added sulphur. Subtractive winemaking in the strictest sense - grapes as the only ingredient.
The cuvées carry a musical vocabulary:
- Le Mie Origini - pure Catarratto from Alcamo, the flagship
- Note di Bianco - 100% Grillo, steel-aged around six months
- Sinfonia di Bianco - Grillo with longer élevage
- Note di Rosso
- Blanc de Blancs Metodo Classico Pas Dosé - traditional-method Catarratto sparkling
- 50 Gradi all'Ombra - a vendemmia tardiva (late-harvest) sweet Grillo
- Rosé
Alessandro sits comfortably inside the Sicilian natural-wine cohort alongside COS, Arianna Occhipinti, Frank Cornelissen, and Gulfi - though his base in western Sicily rather than the more celebrated Vittoria/Etna zones gives the project its own quiet register.
