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(vineyard grapes catarratto)

Catarratto, the most common white grapes in Sicily.

Catarratto matures in the first decade of September and givese a wine with pecularities that are very influenced by the terroir, the altitude and the breeding sistem. Four vaiety of it exist: "comune", "lucido spargolo", "lucido serrato", "extra lucido".

The bunch has a conical shape and the grape, with a golden yellow color, is spherical or egg-shaped. Usually the harvest oh the Catarratto is abundant even if it can be attached by diseases. The breeding sistem is the "alberello" and the vines are far-between.

(bunches of grapes catarratto)

This variety has positive peculiarities that international grapes don’t have if cultivated in the sicilian terroir: it doesn’t lose the acidity quickly in the last part of the maturation and so it doesn’t create high concentrations of sugars.

Catarratto is part of a family of grapes that in 1969 was described by Francesco Cupani, author of the "Hortus catholicus". Today the "lucido serrato" variey represents the 80% of the sicilian Catarratto. The wines obtained by the Catarratto have a yellow color with different shades and a pleasant bouquet, especially if young.