Calatrasi Winery

Here's an offer we couldn't refuse: a personal invitation from a wine maker to his vineyard and winery!

We were having a glass of wine at the hotel bar and met Christian Reintjes. After a long conversation, and multiple glasses of vino, he could tell we were experts in the field of consumption but knew very little about the art of making the wine. He had a group of the top distributors from Northern Europe in Sicily as his guests to tour the winery so they could see the production of what they were selling. If you know Becky, it was not long before we had our invitation to join the fun.

The cab ride to San Cipirello was an adventure itself. One thing that we learned about Sicilians is that everyone thinks they know where everything is! When you have been standing on the corner with your friends for the last 50 years, and have never left Sicily, we don't think they dare say that the don't know where something is. There was a lot of pointing, shouting, "air" maps being drawn - they looked like conductors at the Palermo Symphony. What should have been a 45 minute ride turned out to be about an hour and a half, but how can a ride through the Sicilian countryside be bad?!

We arrived at the winery late, but the other thing we have learned about Sicilians is that there are no true clocks, and no one is too busy for people. Funny thing, when you take TV out of the lineup, there is plenty of time for family and friends, new and old alike. Christian made sure the group had plenty to drink (not hard to do when there is a warehouse of vino beside you), and we got a behind-the-scenes tour that was amazing.

We learned all about the process, and were blown away by the sights and scents of the winery. The grapes are grown on a hillside in...where else....Corleone! We saw where the grapes arrive from the trucks, the crushing process and the fermentation tanks. We learned that the best wines come from a "no pushing" process, meaning the wine flows through the tanks without any pressure which can include the bitter flavor from the grape skins. Wines produced with "no push - all gravity" are better tasting thus more expensive. We are pretty sure some of the wines we have been drinking at home have been pushed by a bulldozer.

One highlight of the tour was the warehouse where the oak barrels age the wine. The lights would not go on, which really made you focus on the smell. The oak was a combination of different oaks from all over the world, mostly Europe, but also including the U.S. and Africa. This is a technique that helps give each winery their own unique wines. We took a photo into the darkness and this is what we saw:

Dinner was explained to us as "simple Sicilian peasant" food. We decided we wanted to be Sicilian peasants. Eggplant (melanzana) was served as a cold salad, which was prepared with olive oil (of course), balsamic vinegar, sugar, olives, and onions - unbelievably good. The 2nd course was a hot melanzana prepared with pomodoro and formaggio (red sauce and cheese). It just kept getting better. Next, homemade sausage and pork fried in olive oil. The main course was veal in breadcrumbs, thinly sliced and lightly fried in, what else, olive oil! Dessert was a cannoli-like cookie with a sweet goat cheese instead of the ricotta - drooling yet? It was soooo good. We also had some incredible wines of course, from champagne to dessert wine and everything in between. This was followed by an espresso just to keep our eyes open. This photo is of the dining room as we were leaving (fat and happy).


Conversation at the table that night was priceless, with mostly German and French as the modes of communication. Becky impressed with a few German phrases, "wunderbar!" (wonderful!) being a big hit. Steve had a "tres bien!" (very well done!) for the folks from France, which got the crowd fired up!

It turned out that Christian and his family had visited a friend in Boston a few years ago and made it to Fenway Park! The great part of the story was that David Ortiz threw a ball to his 12 year daughter - leave it to Big Papi to not only break an 86 year old curse, but also to be an international ambassador.

They squeezed us into their shuttle van on the ride back to Palermo. We should have known they were just getting started. Christian gave us the "Palermo by Night" tour, stopping at some of the wonderful monuments and a fantastic wine bar. There were some great stories told by a group of people that live life very differently from us, and somehow surprisingly similar at the same time. We ended up getting a few "personal tour guide" offers from a few members of the group when we visit their northern European cities - another offer that will be difficult to refuse!