The World of Fine Wine, a leading publication for connoisseurs and enthusiasts of great wines, crowns the submission by Tenuta Capofaro’s Wine Bar in Salina – the Wine Destination by Tasca d’Almerita in the Aeolian Islands – as “The Most Original Wine List in the World “2022
23 September 2022, Tenuta Capofaro, Salina – The most innovative Wine List in the World for 2022, according to The World of Fine Wine magazine. We are referring to the wine list at Tenuta Capofaro, one of the Tasca d’Almerita family’s five estates.
“Successful wine lists” – says Neil Beckett, Editor in Chief of the publication – “demonstrate not only profound expertise in the sector but also the experience and passion of those who create them”.
This prestigious award has been bestowed after meticulous selection by an international jury – composed of World Champion Sommeliers, Master Sommeliers, Masters of Wine, and highly respected wine writers – and acknowledges wine lists with an extraordinary selection of wines or distinguishing features that set them apart.
“The importance of the geography of wine is the distinct message we wanted to convey with this wine list from our Wine Bar & Restaurant”. What makes wine magical, in our opinion, is its ability to represent its place of origin; the wines that delight us express their geographic significance. The wine list developed by Giulio Bruni is a wine atlas emphasising geographic significance, and places the wine between parallels and meridians” – says Alberto Tasca, eighth generation of the Tasca d’Almerita family and head of the company.
“When we arrived to build our hospitality project on Capofaro in 2001, we began with the vineyard in the desire to highlight the area’s most suitable varieties. Today, this award recognizes that work, aimed at making us a focal contact for wine and place. I am happy that Sicily is once again in the Olympus of world wine “.
Capofaro was established from the Tasca d’Almerita family’s love for vineyards and the sea. It is a scenic estate on the island of Salina designed for friends, guests, and all refined travellers, in the spirit of the best Mediterranean hospitality. Few places in the Mediterranean have the eternal charm of this stretch of land, marked by rows of Malvasia vines which slope down towards the sea, perched on a cliff overlooking a cobalt horizon graced by the silhouettes of Stromboli and Panarea.
Capofaro – a member of Relais & Chateaux – has created a “feeling” that goes far beyond the structure of a resort or an island hotel: it is a place for the soul and a unique wine destination in the centre of the Mediterranean. Perhaps the most spectacular destination of all.
“After years collaborating and drafting several wine lists, once I arrived in Sicily the Mediterranean immediately made it clear to me that those somewhat rigid blueprints with which wine lists had always been created – with the classic distinction between white/red/sparkling wines – were no longer applicable” – declares Giulio Bruni, the young sommelier from Tasca d’Almerita and manager of Tenuta Capofaro.
“I needed to return to the concept of wine geography, introduced by Jacky Rigaux with his work on Geo-Sensory Tasting. This wine list is a small ‘enographic’ atlas” – says Giulio Bruni – “the result of the need to convey the characteristics of the place where each wine comes from; a selection of producers who, in line with our values, respect the identity of the territory in which they operate”.
Nature reigns in its entirety on Capofaro and Tasca d’Almerita serves as its attentive guardian. The vineyards overlook the crystalline sea, the vegetable gardens and meadows scattered in shady patches, and the small white houses blend in with the Aeolian landscape: Capofaro is first and foremost a harmonious ecosystem as well as a corner of paradise. It is here that Capofaro’s Vigna Anfiteatro, a verdant and spectacular basin located in the heart of the estate, is the natural setting for one of the most impressive Wine Bars in the Mediterranean and certainly the most coveted in the Aeolian Islands.
About Tasca d’Almerita
For almost two centuries, one of Italy’s oldest and most prestigious family-owned wineries, Tasca d’Almerita, has been operating at the Regaleali Estate in the rural heart of Sicily. It was here that Count Giuseppe Tasca d’Almerita planted Perricone and Nero d’Avola as small trees on the San Lucio hill in 1959, investing in a future that few Sicilians could imagine at the time. Doing so, he laid the foundations for the first wine from a single vineyard in Sicily: Riserva del Conte, later called Rosso del Conte, worthy of competition with the best European and New World vintages. His son Lucio continued the quest for excellence, planting the first international varieties in Sicily and modernising Tasca d’Almerita winemaking facilities.
Today, Lucio’s son Alberto Tasca passionately upholds his father’s and grandfather’s dedication to quality and passion for innovation and research. He has expanded and enriched this legacy with a focus on sustainability, which is expressed in the patient, attentive and age-old care of the territories where Tasca lives and works.
Starting in 2001, with a detailed project to enhance the value of particularly suitable territories, he has driven the systematic expansion of the company – Regaleali has been joined over time by other Estates: Capofaro in Salina, Tascante on Mount Etna, Whitaker in Mozia and Sallier de La Tour in the Monreale DOC territory. The bond that unites each of these estates is Sicily itself.
Tasca d’Almerita has been a part of the SOStain programme since 2009, committing to a process of continuous improvement that has over time led it to reduce the impact of its activities in the vineyard, in the cellar and throughout the organisation. A constant commitment that has resulted in Tasca d’Almerita receiving the “European Winery of the Year” award from Wine Enthusiast magazine and the prestigious Green Emblem from Robert Parker Wine Advocate, an acknowledgement given by one of the most important critics in the international wine world to companies that have demonstrated extraordinary efforts in the search for virtuous agricultural and oenological practices, with an eye to long-term environmental protection and the safeguarding of biodiversity.
