Lucido is produced with 100% Catarratto grapes (the most widespread white grape variety in Sicily), specifically the variant known as Catarratto bianco lucido. This variety is more delicate and fresh than the common variant, with a significantly less pronounced characteristic bitter aftertaste.
The name ‘lucido’ (shiny) or ‘extra-lucido’ derives from its characteristic bright appearance, caused by a lower presence of bloom—the waxy, whitish substance that covers the berries and gives grapes a velvety look, affecting the color of the cluster.
Western Sicily, Province of Trapani
12.5% vol.
2008
Over 15 years
Medium-textured sandy-calcareous soil.
Training system: Guyot vertical trellis, 3,500 vines per hectare.
Manual, first week of September.
After cooling and rigorous manual selection, the clusters are gently pressed. The must remains to decant at a low temperature for 48 hours. The clarified portion starts fermentation with indigenous yeasts in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks with minimal use of sulfites.
7 months in stainless steel tanks, on fine lees.
Catarratto is one of the most widely cultivated grape varieties in Sicily, long associated more with quantity than quality, but rarely portrayed for what it can truly be. Lucido was created to bridge this gap.
At the origin of the project is the recovery of a selection from Pantelleria, which Marco De Bartoli brought to Marsala, choosing the “Lucido” biotype, characterized by brighter berries and greater expressive precision. This gesture also takes shape in the label: the vintage botanical drawing, taken from ampelographic plates, restores a historical depth to the variety that had long remained in the background. The vinification in steel and the work on fine lees follow the same direction, leaving room for the variety without superstructures.
Lucido is thus one of the estate’s most essential monovarietal wines, a wine that makes evident what Catarratto can be.
The estate is located in Contrada Samperi, twelve kilometers from Marsala, on calcareous and sandy soil that the Mediterranean wind sweeps across unimpeded. The baglio dates back to the late nineteenth century — thick walls, filtered light, the scent of aged wood already noticeable from outside. Around it, Grillo vineyards cultivated in the alberello system, as is the tradition of this land.
12 HA
medium-textured sandy-limestone, flat
alberello and Guyot-trained vertical shoot positioning; 3,500 vines per hectare.
manual in small crates, during the final weeks of September.
Manual selection of grapes, soft pressing, natural sedimentation, traditional fermentation in oak and chestnut barrels at room temperature.
Aging in oak and chestnut barrels with the addition of 5% younger wine each year, using the traditional perpetual method.
8.600
