Calabria

Calabria is the birthplace of the name Italy, given to it by the Ancient Greeks who settled in this land starting from the 8th century BC. Thanks to its strategic position in the center of the Mediterranean Sea, the region became the center of Magna Grecia (Greater Greece), with the foundation along its coasts of many Greek city-states that remained for centuries among the richest and most culturally advanced of their time.

The region was gradually Romanized through a series of wars starting with the Pyrrhic War through the Punic Wars (3rd and 2nd Centuries BC, until it was included into Regio III of Italy by Augustus Caesar around the turn of the Millenium. It then remained Roman for some 500 years until Alaric’s sack of Rome in 410, when it slipped under Gothic control for a short time. After the Gothic War, it became and remained for five centuries a Byzantine dominion, fully recovering its Greek character. In the 11th century, the Norman conquest started a slow process of Latinization. After the Normans came the Kingdom of Aragon, then the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (which Napoleon gifted to his brother in law Joachim Murat) and then finally courtesy of Garibaldi, the unification with the rest of Italy under the House of Savoy during the Risorgimento.

The region today includes three recognized ethnic minorities - the Griko, who speak Calabrian Greek; the Arbereshe (Italo-Albanians), and the Occitan population of the village of Guardia Piemontese.

The geology of Calabria is incredibly complex due to its position on the Italian tectonic plate margin overlying the subducting African plate. The region is diced with faults, and includes igneous, volcanic, metamorphic and shallow marine sedimentary rock types (limestones, sandstones, marls, shales). The soils are equally varied and can change across very small distances.

The climate is classically Mediterranean along the coasts, but dramatically more extreme in the interior highlands with hot days and cool nights, and cool wet winters that contrast with the hot, dry summers.

the wines

Ciro DOC Wines

Ciro Bianco: 100% Greco Bianco. Fermented and aged in stainless steel.

Ciro Rosato: 100% Gaglioppo. Destemmed, brief skin contact before fermentation and ageing for several months in stainless.

Ciro Rosso Classico Superiore: 80% Gaglioppo, 20% Calabrese. Fermentation in stainless following 7-9 days maceration. Brief ageing in stainless before bottling.

Ciro Rosso Classico Superiore Riserva: 100% Gaglioppo. Maceration with skins and pumping over at controlled temperature for 15 days in stainless, then fermented in stainless. Rested in tank for 6 months, followed by 18 months in French oak barriques and tonneaux. Then further ageing in the bottle before release.

enotria

Cantina Enotria was founded in 1974 by Cataldo Calabretta, Gaetano Cianciaruso, and Armando Susanna. Today the winery is led by Cataldo’s son Salverio, and Armando’s grandson also named Armando.

Their philosophy has remained constant- to produce a wine of great value and fidelity to terroir and to the flavors of the native varieties; bringing the pleasures of simplicity, genuineness and the land back to the people.

Located on the east coast of Calabria on the shores of the Ionian Sea, Enotria owns lands in and adjacent to the Ciro DOC, which spreads along the coast from Ciro Marina, the local port town, down towards Crotone (Croton, Kroton. famed as the home of the Greek mathematician Pythagoras, who settled there in 532 BC). The DOC is nestled along the coast southeast of the Plateau of La Sila and the Gulf of Corgliano to the north.

The winery owns some 135 acres, divided into five vineyards nestled between the sea and hills in the Cirò DOC area. About 2/3 of this is in the Ciro DOC between the towns of Ciro and Ciro Marina, the remaining 44 acres is within IGT Calabria between the towns of Melissa and Strongoli.

The five vineyards used for production are:

Saverona - 17.5 acres. Greco Bianco, Pecorello, Chardonnay and Syrah

Feudo - 31 acres. Greco Bianco, and Magliocco

Il Vecchio - 22 acres. Greco Bianco and Gaglioppo

Serpito (Melissa, Strongoli) -  44 acres. Gaglioppo, Cabernet Sauvignon, Ansonica, Nerello Calabrese, and Merlot

Il Corfo 24 acres.  Greco Bianco, Gaglioppo, Ansonica, Magliocco, and Merlot

The soils here are medium textured and clayey, which produce wines of great aromatic depth and minerality. Vines are pruned largely to the guyot system and grown without irrigation. Fruit is harvested entirely by hand and handled gently to preserve the quality and aromaticity. Wines are fermented using cultivations of the indigenous yeasts naturally occuring on their grapes.

Varieties grown include Ansonica, Greco Bianco, and Pecorello for whites, and Gaglioppo, Magliocco, and Nerello Calabrese for reds.

Roots: IGT Calabria Wines

91 (Bianco): a blend of 70% Greco Bianco , 20% Ansonica and 10% Pecorello, fermented and aged in stainless. Clean and fresh

20 (Rosato): 100% Gaglioppo, destemmed then fermented in stainless after a brief period of skin contact. Soft and lush with light strawberry notes.

106 (Rosso): 100% 60% Gaglioppo, 20% Nerello Calabrese, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon. 7-9 days maceration in stainless followed by fermentation, then ageing 6 months in stainless and 6 months in barrique before bottling.