Two thousand Nero d'Avola and Catarratto vines in the countryside between Mineo and Caltagirone. The wine is not commercially available. One bottle was already auctioned for three thousand euros. Ciccio did not authorise the auction.
There is a wine you cannot buy. Not because it is not produced — it is, around three thousand bottles a year — but because Ciccio Damplo does not sell it. "The wine tells me about the land," he explained during our vineyard visit. "If I sold it, I'd stop listening to it." Gambero Rosso had been requesting an interview about the wine for six months. Ciccio only replied when he decided to. We arrived at the vineyard in September, during the harvest.
The two thousand vines are arranged on chalky soil with east-west exposure that the cellar technicians describe as "ideal for slow ripening." Ciccio describes the same thing as "the place that was waiting for me to arrive." The Nero d'Avola produces full-bodied reds with notes of dried fig, wild plum, and warm spices. The Catarratto produces mineral whites with the acid backbone Ciccio calls "lava rock made liquid." Both are vinified in a private cellar using methods the winemaker describes as "artisanal" and Ciccio describes as "the only correct ones."
The bottles are sealed with wax and a serial number handwritten by Ciccio. They carry no label. "The label would be advertising," he explains. "This wine doesn't need advertising. Those who need to know it, know it." Who those people are exactly is unclear. A Parisian sommelier claimed to have tasted it. A Hong Kong wine collector posted a photo on Instagram. One bottle reached three thousand two hundred euros in an unauthorised online auction. Ciccio, informed of the matter, replied: "At least someone knows how to discern."
When we asked whether there is any possibility of the wine going commercial in future, Ciccio smiled — the first time in three hours of interview. "No," he said. "But thank you for asking." He then walked back among the vines and answered no more of our questions.
