Manene
Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG Classico
My first wine, the one where it all began. Its name comes from my son, Emanuele.
I’m Paolo Calì.
Pharmacist by profession, winegrower by choice.
When I was a boy, my father took me out to the countryside every afternoon after school. I remember the light, the sand that got in everywhere and the time we spent together. For many years I did another job: I was a pharmacist. Then I felt the need to go back to that very place, to the land my family has farmed for generations. In 2001 I planted my first vineyard. I didn’t just want to make wine: I wanted to give that place a new life and find my own way of telling its story.
We still work here, on the marine sands of contrada Salmè, in the heart of the historic Cerasuolo di Vittoria area. The vineyard isn’t a memory to keep under glass: it is daily work, done with people who bring the same care to it as I do.
1700sMy family farms the land of Vittoria, in contrada Salmè.
2001I plant my first vineyard on an ancient dune of marine sand.
2003The first harvest comes in and Manene takes shape, named after my son Emanuele.
2005Cerasuolo di Vittoria becomes a DOCG: the first in Sicily, and still the only one.
2008Osa! is born: my Frappato made as a rosé.
2011The first cru is born: Forfice.
2014With Blues I give Grillo a voice too: my white wine.
2018Mood is born: a sparkling rosé from Frappato, made with the ancestral method.
2020My research into the differences between the plots takes shape in three crus: Pruvuletta, Forfice and Niscia.
Vineyards on the marine sands of Vittoria
People who come to see me are surprised by the ground: it isn’t the dark soil you expect in a vineyard. It is sand, very ancient marine sand, shaped by wind and rain. We are in Vittoria, in contrada Salmè, about ten kilometres from the coast and 189 metres above sea level. In summer the sun makes it scorching; when evening comes, the air changes. It is a demanding place that asks for attention and gives back wines with great personality.
In these vineyards I chose to grow only Sicilian varieties: Frappato, Nero d’Avola and Grillo. My work starts here, from trying to understand what each of them can express on these soils.
But the sand is never all the same. There are spots, even very close to one another, where the texture of the soil and the way the vine grows change. I wanted those differences to come through: that is how three Cerasuolo di Vittoria Classico wines from selected plots were born: Pruvuletta, Forfice and Niscia.
PruvulettaForficeNisciaolive groveN
- Contrada Salmè
Vittoria - 189 m
above sea level - 10 km
from the coast - Trellised
vines
In the middle of the Mediterranean
Vittoria lies in south-eastern Sicily, at the heart of the Mediterranean, ten kilometres from the sea.
From the vineyard to the cellar
When I started, in 2001, I chose to plant only native Sicilian varieties. In the vineyard I farm organically: a lot of the work is done by hand, from pruning to selecting the bunches. It isn’t a romantic detail. It is the most practical way I know to notice in time what a plant needs.
In the cellar, with the oenologist Emiliano Falsini, I try not to lose what we have built up over the year. Fermentations start without added selected yeasts and the wines are not filtered. This doesn’t mean giving up technique or decisions: it means using them to accompany the grapes, not to make them say something they are not.
My wines, from Vittoria
There are wines I come back to every year and others born from the wish to try something new. What holds them together is one idea: start from the grapes and step in only when needed. I farm the vineyards organically, look after every row carefully, and in the cellar I don’t use selected yeasts to start the fermentations. I don’t filter the wines: I want them to keep the character of the vintage and of the place they come from.
My first Cerasuolo is called Manene; the crus Pruvuletta, Forfice and Niscia each come from a single plot. Alongside the reds there is Blues, my Grillo, and there are Osa! and Mood, two different ways of interpreting Frappato in pink.
Cerasuolo di Vittoria
Single variety
Frappato in pink
Jazz