Salina Bianco IGT 2023 (750 ml.) Hauner

THE WINE

TheSalina WhiteofHaunerIt is a fragrant and pleasantly fruity white wine produced in the village of Marina Salina, on the island of Salina. It is made from a blend of Inzolia and Catarratto grapes coming from vines cultivated on tiny plots of land. The grapes are hand-picked at their optimal ripeness. It reveals aromas of Mediterranean scrub along with the fruitiness of citrus and exotic fruits of great finesse. The taste is fresh and immediate with good persistence and savoriness. Excellent when paired with fish dishes, first courses, and soft cheeses.

THE COMPANY

Carlo Hauner, A Brescia native of Bohemian origin who settled in the Aeolian Islands, he was the founder of the agricultural company that bears his name. As a young man, he was a painter and, not yet twenty, exhibited at the Venice Biennale. In his mature years, he achieved significant international success as a designer. His passion for winemaking can be seen as the last challenge of an intense life filled with interests. He first arrived in the Aeolian Islands in 1963, when tourism was just beginning to make its tentative appearances. After several summer vacations (each year longer than the last), he moved to Salina in the 1970s. Always restless and curious, he became attracted to the cultivation of Malvasia, the grape that local farmers harvest in mid-September and dry in the sun for a couple of weeks. According to the traditional method, the grapes are exposed to the open air on trellises during the day and brought in at sunset. Hauner He thus learns the local winemaking techniques and integrates them with the study of ancient and modern texts. When he decides that the knowledge he has acquired and his creativity can contribute to a wine that was once famous as the "nectar of the gods," he searches for plots of land that have remained uncultivated due to the strong emigration that has taken thousands of Eolians to Australia and the Americas. He manages to gather about twenty hectares, which he cleans up, restores to the ancient terraces, and revives as vineyards. He introduces some innovations: he makes the grapes wither on the vine and experiments with cooling techniques during fermentation. Small revolutions that captivate experts, starting with Veronelli, and that lead to the Malvasia of... Hauner on the tables of prestigious restaurants, first in Italy and then in France, the United States, Great Britain, Japan, and other countries. The new cellar of Hauner was established in the 1980s in Lingua, the charming hamlet of Santa Marina Salina. The building, constructed in Aeolian style, features a modern refrigeration system and steel barrels alongside wooden ones for aging, with a total capacity of 1,200 hectoliters. The inauguration of the new winery coincides with the ever-growing interest that the revived Malvasia arouses among critics, journalists, television crews, enologists, producers, and simple wine enthusiasts. Visits to the winery and to the "character Carlo" Hauner"they are becoming increasingly frequent and contribute to spreading the fame of the Aeolian Islands and the prestigious wine produced there. It is during those years that the company adds to the Malvasia the Salina Bianco, the Salina Rosso (medium-grade table wines), and the Antonello, a high-quality product aged in barriques. After the passing of Carlo" Hauner, Founded in February 1996, the company is energetically led by the son Carlo Junior with the valuable collaboration of his wife Cristina and their children. Andrea and Michele. Today, about 50,000 bottles of Malvasia are produced, divided into two versions: the natural and the passito. The company also produces capers, those tasty buds that the inventor of this glorious company was the first to label as “Capperi di Salina.” On the labels, both for the capers and the wines, we find the shapes and colors that his creator loved so much: the architecture of the Aeolian Islands, the colors of Salina's vegetation (defined as the Green Island by all tourist brochures), the reds and oranges of the moon and dawn, the black of the volcano, the blue of the sea. They are reproductions of his paintings.