Donnafugata Bell'Assai Frappato 2017

You may recognise, the women adorning the bottle of Bell'Assai, she is the Sicilian Belle from Beauty & the Beast. It is a similar tale of love and overcoming adversity, except in the Sicilian version it is less of an allegory for a lesson no one quite understands (we guess... don't judge a wine by its label?) and more of a tale of conquering nature. In the Sicilian Beauty & the Beast, the beast is no man nor animal but the wild landscape of Vittoria. Bell'Assai, with the assistance of a talking teapot and a pompous carriage clock, tame Vittoria and realise the latent beauty in the region. This is in the form of a red wine from the native Frappato grape, offering a fragrant bouquet with intense flowery notes of violets and roses combined with scents of fresh red fruit (strawberries and raspberries). In the mouth it surprises with its great freshness, a perfect harmony between aroma and taste, supported by soft tannins. Relax and take a sip, seriously be our guest... be our guest, be our guest!

The Rallo family has made wine in Marsala since 1851 and their ancient cellars tunnel beneath the city. They were one of the first families to begin making high quality table wine when sales of traditional Marsala started to decline, launching the Donnafugata label in 1983 and championing the potential of the region's native varieties. Today, Donnafugata has three estates in Sicily: a modern winery and 270 hectares at Contessa Entellina in the hills east of Marsala; 18 hectares in Vittoria to the south eastern point of the Island; and 68 hectares on the island of Pantelleria. Donnafugata means 'fleeing woman' and is a reference to Queen Maria Carolina, who escaped the court of Naples in the early 19th Century with her husband, Ferdinand IV of Bourbon, when Napoleon's troops arrived. The couple took refuge in Sicily at the Santa Margherita Belice palace, also the favourite residence of celebrated writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and depicted on the 'Mille e una Notte' label.
Donnafugata was created in Sicily thanks to the initiative of a passionate family that revolutionized the style and the perception of Sicilian wine in the world. Donnafugata now consists of a team of people increasingly focused on representing the excellence of Made in Italy all over the world – guided by the fifth generation of the family. The vineyards for this wine are located in south-east Sicily, in the territory of Acate, at an altitude of 120-150 meters above sea level. The gently sloping terrains have sandy soils with a substratum of calcareous tuff and clay. Vines are trained in a vertical shoot positioning system with cordon pruning, leaving 6-10 buds per plant. Planting density is 4,000-4,500 plants per hectare with yields of 7– 8 tons/hectare. Frappato grapes were harvested during mid-September. Once at the winery, grapes were fermented in stainless steel with maceration on the skins for about 8-9 days at a temperature of 24-25°C. After malolactic fermentation, the wine aged in tank for 4 months and then in bottle for at least 3 months before release.