Vecchio Samperi

An off-dry white wine made from Grillo at 16.5% vol., whose power comes from natural concentration rather than added alcohol. 12.6 grams of residual sugar stand against 6.7 grams of acidity, the pH is 3.26 and the sulphur content is 8 mg/l.

The vineyard lies on limestone-rich soil in Contrada Samperi, just outside Marsala in western Sicily. Twelve hectares are planted with Grillo, vines between 20 and 42 years old trained in the traditional albarello bush-vine system. The yield is 20 hectolitres per hectare.

Grillo has grown on the limestone soils around Marsala since Phoenician times; Marco de Bartoli valued it for its naturally high acidity. The grapes are hand-picked and fermented slowly at room temperature with indigenous yeasts in open oak and walnut vats. The wine then moves into the Perpetuum, a linked system of barrels in which it has been ageing since 1980. Each year 5 percent is drawn off and 5 percent is topped up.

The nose is fine and balanced: slightly dried and fresh stone fruit, unripe walnuts, hazelnut and fruit tart and ripe citrus, with a delicate sweetness running through the tart nutty aromas. On the palate, great richness is met by an acidity that cuts through the thicket of flavours: dried fruit, an array of nuts, buttery baked dough and orange peel, more intense than on the nose. These lead into a striking finish of great length and density.

With Ruota di Pesce Spada, swordfish belly steak with chilli flakes and lemon, with gratinated oysters and with pecorino with pepper and nuts.

Vecchio Samperi was the first wine Marco de Bartoli bottled, after the former racing driver returned to Samperi in 1978. Between 1995 and 2000 the winery remained closed, because the authorities refused to classify a wine with 18 percent alcohol as wine. Today Renato, Sebastiano and Giuseppina de Bartoli run the 30-hectare estate, farmed organically.