Katamacerato – Catarratto Orange Wine from Sicily

WHAT IS AN ORANGE WINE OR SKIN CONTACT WINE ?

[definition by Wine Enthusiast]

Skin contact is another term for maceration, or the period during winemaking when the grape skins remain in contact with the juice. Most red wines are made by fermenting grapes with their skins for the entire period of alcoholic fermentation. Thus, when people talk about skin-contact wines, they usually refer to white grapes that are vinified like red wines. The term Orange is another way to indicate this category: this style of wines can also be known by their color references of having an amber or orange tinge that the base white wine receives due to its contact with the coloring pigments of the grape skins.

WHAT IS A NATURAL WINE?

NATURAL WINES ARE made only with organic/biodynamic grapes, without adding or subtracting anything in the cellar. No additives, no chemicals, no aromas, no selected yeasts, low sulfur, that’s it.

KATAMACERATO from
Catarratto grapes

GRAPES VARIETIES: Catarratto

MACERATION 7 days - SOIL clay, sand, stones - AGEING 7 months in stainless steel vessel

WINEMAKING natural, spontaneous fermentation

VINTAGES AVAILABLE: 2022

Katamacerato is our skin-contact Catarratto wine from the Mount of Alcamo in Sicily, made from 100% Catarratto grapes grown on white marl soils.

✦ The wine

After five years of working with Catarratto, we finally arrived at our own expression of this grape.
Catarratto is the most widely planted variety in the Alcamo area and, more than any other grape, it represents the identity of our town.

Over the last twenty years, however, we have witnessed its gradual disappearance in spirit. Large wineries began vinifying Catarratto for the market, stripping it of everything that makes it wine: no skin contact, pasteurisation, heavy filtration, resulting in a pale, neutral hydro-alcoholic beverage rather than a true expression of the grape.

With this wine, we chose to make a clear break with the past, symbolised on the label by a katana cutting the bunch in two.
We deliberately took the opposite path.

Catarratto is a great grape when nothing is taken away from it. Its energy, structure and character live in the skins, and that is where we chose to work.

This is the kind of wine that farmers once kept for themselves, carried in simple lunches during long days in the countryside, often shared with aged pecorino or salted sardines, a wine of sustenance, character and truth.

✦ The vineyard

The grapes come from a luminous hillside at about 650 metres above sea level, where the soil is rich in white marl.

Here, light and altitude shape fruit that is clean, taut and expressive.
The harvest is timed when aromatic development and natural tension meet in balance.

✦ In the cellar

Vinification follows our natural philosophy:

• spontaneous fermentation

• extended skin contact

• ageing in stainless steel

The maceration gives the wine its structure and texture, while stainless steel preserves clarity and freshness.

✦ Tasting

On the nose, layers of dried citrus peel, orchard fruit and Mediterranean herbs emerge with clarity.

The palate is textured yet precise, supported by fresh acidity and a persistent saline echo.
A wine with presence and depth, carried by balance rather than weight.

✦ A broader vision

With Katamacerato, we explore the expressive potential of Catarratto beyond its conventional boundaries, letting time and texture become part of the narrative.

It stands alongside our other Catarratto wines as a complementary voice, shaped by patience, respect and restraint.

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