"Produced exclusively from Catarratto grapes grown on the Il Censo estate outside of Palazzo Adriano; vineyards are farmed organically and grapes are harvested manually, with harvest occurring usually in October; the grapes maintain contact with the skins for two to three weeks, the length of the maceration depending on the vintage; only indigenous yeasts are used during fermentation and no temperature controls are utilized; the wines is bottled with being fined or filtered. The wine characteristically has a rich, golden tint with a strong minerality and a pleasant bitterness and an almost saline quality.

Courtesy of our long friendship with Giampiero Bea, the Umbrian wunderkind and son of Paolo Bea, we had the special good fortune of meeting Gaetano and Nicoletta Gargano, the proprietors of Il Censo, an estate of 65 hectares situated in Bivona in the south-central zone of Sicily near the town of Palazzo Adriana, the site of the wonderful film, Cinema Paradiso.

23Gaetano’s family, through his mother’s side (family name: Spoto), has owned Il Censo for over 200 years. Production over the years was principally of grains and legumes but there was also a small vineyard planted to Perricone and Malvasia Nera and an old olive grove the trees of which are now 100 years of age. The name “Il Censo” literally means “census” but in this instance most likely refers to the obligations of the tenant farmers to pay tribute to the landowning family, a system that dates back to feudal times. The name predates the Spoto time of ownership.