From grapes to wine
The Abraxas Company grew from the passion of its founders for vines and wine.
The idea of reclaiming vines that had been abandoned due to tecnical and economical problems in their cultivation, has presented Calogero Mannini and Attilio Tripodi with indescribable difficulties; finding the funds, restoring the cultivation with new implants and meanwhile, trying to imagine what kind of wine might be made from the queen of Pantelleria’s grapes - the Zibibbo, together with the red grape and others which are present in the ampelographic basin of Pantelleria.
The natural ‘Passito’ is obtained without artifice or any intervention by man that might alter the traditions and history of Pantelleria.
The Zibibbo grape, matured, picked and left to dry according to ancient methods, then left to wither under the August sun. Protected during the night by canvas tents and assisted by modern technology.
From the fresh grape to the naturally withered one, a true ‘passito’ is born and in order to be competitive on an ever more difficult market and needs to go beyond the limits that often characterise this kind of wine: a natural heaviness due to the sugar content without the balance of alcohol and whose content has to be reached naturally by the strength of the grapes and the acidity.
Therefore, the fresh must has to be made up from a cuveè. This creates the need of putting the Bukkuram-Scirafi vine alongside another vine in another microzone (this is a special quality of the Island, that is, the Mueggen-Randazzo.
The Abraxas Company has decided to create a second group of vines. The first one at Bukkuram-Scirafi 120mt. Above sea level, and the second at Mueggen-Randazzo, more than 400mt. Above sea level.
The same Zibibbo with different characteristics that can be integrated.
However, Randazzo is suitable for other vines too. In those areas where once the red grape was cultivated, the Carignano, the Grenache are some of the varieties derived from the Nero d’Avola.
So,with the help of Attilio Scienza, Mario Fregoni, Daniel Bouvet and Pier Paolo Sirch, the previosly mentioned vines are integrated and thriving along the borders of the Pantelleria woods.
A natural landscape where the contribution of Abraxas has added to and enriched the Reserve.
All this is the Company and its products today,and it has in the last few years, obtained important recognition and awards, but most of all it has gained important market recognition. From the U.S.A. to Japan and to Germany, Abraxas is a brand that can rely on valuable collaborations which allow the Company, even in its diversity and alongside others, to be a rare jewel of Pantelleria.
“When the stars of Orion and Sirios have climbed up into midheaven
and rosy-fingered Dawn is facing Arkturos,
then Perseus, pluck and bring home all your clusters of grapes.
Set them to dry in the heat of the sun for ten days and nights
and in the shade for five days,
and then on the sixth day draw off the blessings
of glad ionysos into your jars”
(Hesiod ‘Autumn’ verses 609-614)
This is what the Greeks did according to the poet Hesiod. We now do the same.
Historical tradition in Pantelleria would have it that the Zibibbo grape be laid out on a drying stone consisting of a wall, at least two mt. high,with its back to the north and opening its side wings down towards the south in such a way that the sun completes its journey from east to west, slowly like the length of a day. The other wall of heated volcanic stone reflects the sun’s rays on the grapes, causing them to slowly wither.
This traditional system has been adopted in the Bukuram Scirafi vine. Remade not made, but with those innovations that technology permits. In the evening, after dusk, a system of canvs tents covers all the special boxes laid out on the pumice stone and on to which sorghum herbs are placed. This is a procedure that assures perfect results even as regards hygiene and health requirements and is asserted by means of all quality control systems beginning from the HACCP and ISO 14001. It is the beginning of a production process that while respecting traditions, takes advantage of those aids a modern cellar can provide. The freshly picked Zibibbo grapes begin to be processed in steel vats at a controlled ( cold) temperature which when reaching the first step, is enriched from the first batch of grapes which are partially withered (‘passolata’). Then when an adequate alcoholic level has been reached, the withered grapes (‘passola’) are added.
This produces at least 35% concentration. Amazingly, a litre of Abraxas is made from seven kilos of grapes.These are the necessary conditions in order to produce an authentic natural ‘passito’. It requires great patience, good sense, intelligence and vigilant contol to obtain the exceptional quality synonomous with Abraxas