I Vigneri, Etna, Sicily

Mount Etna towers over I Vigneri’s old vines

Etna, Sicily

Salvo Foti is native to Etna as are his family roots.  He inherited his viticultural and winemaking experience from his great grandfather and over the past years made a name for himself as consultant winemaker to a number of Etnean estates. 

Together with his two young sons Simone 28 and Andrea 24, Foti manages a small consortium, I Vigneri, established in 1998 with 6 members and 5 hectares of organically Bioagricert certified vines, producing 30,000 bottles.  The range of wines includes three Etna Bianco wines from Carricante grapes in the area of Milo at over 1000 meters on the eastern slopes of Etna and three Etna Rosso labels including ‘Il Vino Rosso Tradizionale dell’Etna’, which is still made in the original ‘palmento’ – the traditional way of winemaking on Etna, using a system of stone containers where the grapes are pressed by foot and the must collected by use of gravity.

I Vingeri’s old vines comprise 1 ha of Nerello Mascalese 85%, Grenache 15%, while their top label originates from a 0,5ha 100-year-old single vineyard of Nerello Mascalese 90%, Grenache 10%, producing a limited edition, Viti Centenarie Vinupetra Etna Rosso.

“Old vines, in a given territory, are part of a complex and articulated system which derives from an intimate and continuous relationship between soil, environment, vine and the native vine growers,” something which is intrinsic to Salvo Foti’s viticultural philosophy.

Over the years Etna has witnessed a specific vine training system and particular pruning method, binding technique and knowledge which are fundamental to the cultivation and care that have accompanied the vines over the centuries.

I Vingeri prefer to define their wines as “Human Wines”, which embodies the continuation of the agricultural and viticultural practices of their ancestors, and of the Alberello (bush-training of the vine) and the Palmento.

Salvo Foti and his team see themselves as indigenous vine-growers, who like their predecessors, took care of their vines creating a unique and unrepeatable farming landscape taking on the role of ‘guardians’ of their vineyards and consequently of their territory, implementing an ethically conscious conservative and regenerative viticulture of balance, and sustainability.

“Today's old vines are the result of hundreds of years of work, traditional cultivation methods and adaptation to the land.  Mankind and the vine have always coexisted and often the vines have survived a generation of viticulturists, passed on and tended to by the next generation,” explains Foti.
www.ivigneri.it
@ivigneri_salvofoti
Video: I Vigneri - Old style, new life