IDENTITY
TENUTA DI FESSINA: A’ FIMMINA SU LA MUNTAGNA.
From the beginning, Tentua di Fessina’s desire was to create “a place of beauty, between earth and spirit”, rather than a cellar in the strict sense in which people, skills and energies could converge and in turn merge to enrich the intangible heritage of the Estate, made up of professional and human relationships, exchanges and ideas around the culture of wine and good living.
Pioneers on the Volcano – among the producers who have given new impetus to oenology on Etna, Silvia Maestrelli – from a Florentine entrepreneurial family who emigrated to Milan for love – arrived on Etna already in 2006 accompanied by her husband and partner Roberto Silva, in the wake of a falling in love with this land full of contrasts. A true coup de foudre for a difficult land, strongly masculine, but of enormous charm and equally great oenological potential.
Thus begins a new phase in his life and a search, both personal and professional, which will give life in 2007 – after long and detailed negotiations with the ancient and numerous owners of the land – to the birth of Tenuta di Fessina.
A project in which the sensitivity of an oenological vision, combined with the undisputed technical ability of the consultants and collaborators, including Jacopo Maniaci, CEO and historic right-hand man of the family, and Benedetto Alessandro, Oenologist and Agronomist, has allowed us to create in just 10 years since its foundation – one of the most successful and recognizable wineries in the Etna area, the perfect ambassador in the world of the new Sicilian viticulture.
The project took shape in 2007 when the Tuscan producer Silvia and her husband Roberto purchased an old Nerello Mascalese vineyard dating back to the last century.
In the center of the vineyard, a true treasure chest: an eighteenth-century millstone in lava stone, with the ancient “chianca” – press for pressing the pomace – still intact.
“The vineyards” of Fessina, as the people of these lands have always called the Rovittello estate, in the municipality of Castiglione di Sicilia, speak well of the care and love with which they were cultivated and preserved by the previous owners, to whom the Nerello Mascalese cru “Il Musmeci, ETNA DOC Riserva Rosso” was dedicated as a form of thanks for not having ruined the vineyards on Etna.
At a glance, Fessina appears like a real garden of golden fruits or a dwarf forest of brilliant green foliage disheveled by the nourishing wind of the Mountain of Fire, nestled between two very fertile lava flows, with centenary trees screwed in on themselves and expressive like natural sculptures. It’s impossible not to fall in love with it at first sight.
