Tenuta La Favola

Tenuta la Favola (meaning fable) has a long history handed down through the generations. It is a project that began 200 years ago when a great-grandfather bought land in a place called Buonivini, a hillside planted with vineyards, olive and carob trees with a large house at the top of the hill. A history spanning four generations up to the present, when Corrado and Valeria turn it into a winery with Italian and Swiss organic certification, producing natural and organic wines with maximum respect for biodiversity

The winery is situated on a hill at the southernmost tip of Sicily. To the North you can see the plume of smoke rising from Mount Etna, and to the south the blue of the Mediterranean and Ionian seas. The limestone paths between the rows of vines are white, and at night, when the moon shines, so does the land. A little corner of paradise in an area called Buonivini ('good wines') for good reason, with fabulous views.

The main part of the winery covers approximately 9 hectares. Another vineyard of 3 hectares is located some 300 metres away and another 3 hectares are situated close to the sea and the marshes. Roughly 19 hectares in total, of which 12 hectares are vineyards, 5 are olive groves and the remainder farm buildings, dry stone walls and ecological compensation zones deliberately left uncultivated.

Corrado Gurrieri, agronomist and oenologist, has worked for many years in public and private research institutions in Sicily specialising in the wine sector and a breeder he has contributed to the creation of various vine clones. He is the winery's chief agronomist and directs our biodiversity programmes. Valeria Valenza has a background in the humanities and directs our international relations and multicultural projects.

This is our philosophy: to produce with the utmost respect for nature and biodiversity, so that our wines can express our territory as much as possible. For us, working organically also means care and sustainability regarding our packaging. Our bottles are recycled Sicilian glass; labels are made with recycled paper, eco-friendly glues and written in Braille; bottle stoppers are made with certified organic sugar cane polymer, recyclable with zero-carbon printing. Cardboard boxes are of natural paper with interlocking closures eliminating the use of tapes and glues.

The winery has been organic since 1997 and has double Italian and Swiss organic certification.
Before the harvest the grapes are selected on the plant. When the grapes are ripe, samples are collected to prepare the pied de cuvee. Our wines are aged in steel tanks, stone tanks and stoneware amphorae.
The stone (not concrete) tanks were constructed in 1902. In 2005, after several years of disuse, the tanks were treated with special breathable resins and prepared for new use. The stone guarantees natural cooling of the wine and gives it a pleasant minerality. The stoneware amphorae allow the wine to age and mature while preserving the typical characteristics of the wine, without olfactory contamination.