Italian Fashion Top designer wines Collection’s

Feudi del Pisciotto is a winery both old and new in origin, producing wines of the highest quality in the heart of Sicily. It is located between Piazza Armerina, the home of ceramics, and Caltagirone with its miraculously intact Roman villa, and is 7km from the sea. The Feudo, or feudal manor house, dates back to the 1700’s and at the time of it’s construction was one of the largest in Sicily. The oldest part of the building includes the Palmento, from the Latin paumentum, or ‘to press’. Here the term refers to the pressing of grapes which in this case enter the vats from above, by force of gravity alone, a method judged today as being the most efficient.

Restored without any modifications to the original structure, the Palmento is connected to a modern cellar housing the most advanced technology and capable of handling up to10 thousand hectolitres. The vineyards, which have been planted around the Feudo, are at present 40 hectares of the final 150 and are comprised of the chief indigenous species (from Nero d’Avola to Frappato) and international varieties including Merlot and Cabernet. The old Feudo borders on the Pisciotto Reserve which is rich in cork trees and some hundred or so other species. Giacomo Tachis, together with Alessandro Cellai in his role as managing director of the Tuscan estates of Castellare and Rocca di Frassinello (the joint venture with Domain Baron Rothschild-Lafite), had the inspired idea of also cultivating Semeillon and Gewurztraminer to be destined for the production of a superior Passito. The first true harvest of the new vineyards took place in 2007. Despite the youth of the vines, astonishing results were achieved from all varieties, a quality deserving of a special kind of presentation as defined by the concept of ‘Made in Italy’. Paolo Panerai, who chairs the company throughCompagnia Immobiliare Azionaria and is also head of Castellare and Rocca di Frassinello, wanted to unite these wines with the maximum definition of ‘Made in Italy’ itself; fashion design.
With a view to this, Panerai invited top Italian designers to participate in the launch of these great Sicilian wines, part of the annual proceeds of which will be donated to the restoration of a work of art, chosen from amongst the islands great wealth of treasures. This proposal has resulted in labels designed by Valentino, Versace, Missoni, Blumarine, Alberta Ferretti, Gianfranco Ferré and Carolina Marengo, the youngest designer, but already acclaimed by the Herald Tribune. Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccoli (fronting the Valentino team) have produced a label which immediately evokes the perfumes and vivacious hues of Merlot; Donatella Versace, a lover of the king of Sicilian reds Nero d’Avola, chose the Versace symbol of the Medusa. Anna Molinari, the soul of Blumarine with her soft and harmonious pastels, has designed a label which marries perfectly with the sweetness of Moscato. The various tones of colour which are always the seal of Missoni have resulted in an ideal label for Cabernet Sauvignon; the two labels by Carolina Marengo, with her sensual touch, magically appear for Frappato and Grillo. The richly rigorous creativity of Alberta Ferretti finds it’s natural partner in the grandiose structure of Chardonnay; while the perfect architecture of Gianfranco Ferré unites magnificently with the complexity of Passito.