Feudo Montoni. Grillo Vigna della Timpa

Sicilia DOC
Grape: Grillo

Green apple and mango fruit with fresh jasmine aromas.  An intense dry wine with bitter lime and kiwi flavours.  Refreshing and surprisingly complex.  13% 

Feudo Montoni producer page

Grillo is an interesting variety, a natural crossing between Catarratto and Zibibbo (Muscat) that was documented from 1870’s and by the 1930’s it was extremely popular in Trapani and Masala.  Some problems with low yields, caused by uneven fruit-set, led to it falling out of favour in the 1980’s, the quality is excellent though and it is the child of Sicily’s 2 most famous white grapes, I suspect it will be a Global superstar one day.
Timpa is the vineyard name; it is on an east-facing slope at 700m.  The slope is steep and the soils are sandy, the vines are Guyot trained at 4400 plants per hectare, their average age is 30 years old.  The grapes are hand-picked and de-stemmed before a spontaneous fermentation, a quarter of the grapes remain on the skins during fermentation.  After fermentation, the wines are married and aged on the lees for 6 months in cement tanks, with regular bâtonnage.