Saia Grande 2007 - Tenuta di Budonetto - Sicilia I.G.T. - Maurigi

The Budonetto estate of the Counts Maurigi is a strip of land outside of Piazza Armerina in central Sicily. The land on the estate is varied, with steep slopes, alluvial soils in some parts, bare rock in others. Microclimates abound, changing from segment to segment. The intuition that the very complexity of a territory, traditionally used to do something else, could make it highly suited to an innovative and high-quality cultivation of the vine, is by Francesco Maurigi who in 1996 created a cellar and plants allochthonous vines for 40 hectares of the Estate.

The vineyards are located at an altitude between 550 and 700 meters. The composition of the soil that varies from medium mixture tending to sandy to prevalently limestone and the east-west trend of the extension give rise to a unique and unrepeatable microclimate. The current 40 hectares of vineyards are planted with 4,500 plants per ha and with very low production yield. The utmost care is given to the cultivation techniques: the harvest takes place exclusively by hand followed by a rigorous manual selection of the grapes to be sent for pressing and vinification.