Vineyards & sunny Sicily: visiting Cantine De Gregorio 🌞

With the bistro closed for a couple of weeks, Steven and I have spent our winter holidays visiting my family and our newest wineries.

The three hours drive from Catania took us to Sciacca, on the South West coast of Sicily, the location of the beautiful Cantine De Gregorio.

It's a family business, a winery which produces only 130,000 bottles a year of sustainable, delicious wines that we introduced - first time in the UK - in La Sicilyana wine list only last autumn.

The area of Sciacca is on the seaside and so beautiful, rich in olive trees and vineyards and the De Gregorio family owns a few hectares for their production of excellent oil and wines.

Located in the middle of an extraordinary landscape, that goes from Valle dei Templi in Agrigento to Trapani’s salt ponds through the white rocks of Scala dei Turchi and Selinunte’s temples.

This terroir has always been particularly suited for good quality wine production. The grandparents still remember the vines being cultivated in this volcanic land.

Thirty hectares in total, including both vines and olive groves, where international varieties have grown side by side with the local ones finding their right environment.

Mild winters, hot and dry summers and an incredible sunlight which, combined with the extreme precision into cultivating their vineyards, Nino the enologist ensures that the plants produce healthy fruits that will be turned into excellent wines.

We received such a warm welcome, tasted excellent food, wines and enjoyed a very informative chat of the latest vintages with the owner Ascanio and his son Ugo, the winemaker Nino and the export manager Barbara.

We decided to add one or two new labels for our next order because believe me, they are great wines!