2021 Marilena Barbera "Coste al Vento" Menfi Grillo Sicilia IGT (Orange/Macerato)

“No tricks, no frills, just wine.”- Marilena

Peach, brush, saline, chamomile...this Grillo captures the aromatic qualities from its Zibibbo parent (Grillo is a cross between Catarratto and Moscato), but is offset with an ocean breeze salinity and bitter tangerine peel.

Grillo from Vigna del Pozzo and Tenuta Bellicello vineyards.

The terrain is very deep and calcareous, with plenty of limestone. “Coste” actually means “hillsides” in Sicilian, rather than “coasts” as it does in Italian. The soil minerals give the grapes a pleasant complexity, a good structure and amazing aromatic development. The wine is fermented with wild yeasts in amphora and the skins stay in contact with the juice for 7 days, with further aging on lees in amphora for 4 months. The wine usually goes through at least partial malolactic fermentation (that smooth buttery note). She makes 4,000 bottles/year of this wine.

Marilena Barbera makes fantastic wine in the are of Menfi, western Sicily, a zone that gets little love due to the uptick and obsession over Etna and southeastern Sicilian wines. She bottles native grapes and nostalgically plays with some international grapes that her grandfather planted. In addition to making focused wines with no additives, Marilena also studies various biotypes of her grapes- she brings an infinite curiosity which will only contribute to the overall understanding of her growing zone and grapes to consumers and professionals alike.