Located near the town of Corleone, south of Palermo, Centopassi is hardly a typical Sicilian cooperative (of which there are many). It is the winemaking arm of Libera Terra (“Freed Land”), an organization that produces an array of agricultural products on land that was once controlled by the Sicilian mafia. The Centopassi winemaking entity takes its name from a popular anti-mafia film, “I Cento Passi” (“The Hundred Steps”), which came out in 2000. The source vineyards for the wines sit at quite high altitudes in Western Sicily, and the wines are far more than sentimental picks: the quality, across the board, is stunning.

Centopassi’s grapes come from various vineyards in the high Belice Corleonese Plateau, near the town of Corleone, south of Palermo. “Rocce de Pietra Longa” is a single vineyard in the village of Monreale, a site marked by a tall stone (the Pietra Lunga, about 100 feet high) nearby. The site climbs to roughly 550 meters of elevation and has a southeasterly aspect, in a microclimate which would be considered “cool” by Sicilian standards. Soils are a mix of clay, sand, and silt.

This tangy white is 100% Grillo from a Certified Organic single vineyard in Monreale. The hand-harvested fruit is gently pressed and fermented in stainless steel using selected yeasts. It is aged in stainless steel, on its fine lees, for nine months and lightly filtered before bottling. It’s a pale yellow-gold in the glass, with scents of lemon pith, marzipan, tangerine, wildflower honey, and wet stones. It has mouthwatering minerality—a slightly saline feel, like a white grown closer to the coast. So many Sicilian seafood options in play here!