Sunday, November 10, 2013

Sicily’s Superstar Winery

                                A winery,  a gourmet restaurant, a boutique hotel...an experience!

Never mind that the winery’s owner is a mega-Euro millionaire industrialist from Milan---he’s of Sicilian heritage, and he’s making some of the best wine on the Mediterranean’s largest island.  In the mid-1990’s, entrepreneur Vito Catania decided to return to his Sicilian roots and follow his passion to make wine.   This wild and crazy visionary purchased 200 acres of prime vineyards and began his innovative work to focus on the area’s little know, indigenous grape varietals…and the rest is history.  Gulfi wines are now some of the most-sought after wines in all of Italy.

Never mind that Gulfi winery has won about every European award, or that Robert Parker has scored them 95.  Last year Gulfi won the “Best Italian Wine Estate of the Year.”  Any connoisseur of Italian wine is now on notice that the new kid on the block, Gulfi, is a force to be reckoned with.  Indeed, Vito Catania is on the move with the same fervor that made him one of Milan’s top businessmen.

Never mind that Signor Catania just recently finished a multi-million-Euro winery.  He also built a drop-dead gorgeous visitor’s center, along with a boutique hotel and a gourmet restaurant.  Not at all uncommon in the Napa Valley, this is the first of its genre in Sicily.  Wine-Knows Travel has taken over the entire hotel for next fall’s tour, and we’ve scheduled a cooking class with the restaurant’s highly acclaimed chef. 

Never mind that Gulfi produces stunning wines.  Surrounded by hundreds of olive trees, the winery also makes beautiful olive oil.  There is also a magnificent garden on site from where most everything served in the dining room originates.  This is definitely a farm-to-table kind of experience.


Never mind that Gulfi is a gourmand and oenophile’s dream-come-true.  Check out the above view from the hotel’s private quarters.  Gulfi offers a little piece of paradiso for those who simply want to relax and take in the essence of Sicily.  

Viva Sicilia!


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