PANTELLERIA
Heroic agriculture
Pantelleria is called the Black Pearl of the Mediterranean due to its volcanic nature.
The landscape is all in contrast: on the coasts it has an otherworldly, lunar aspect, pointed by the sea and the incessant wind.
Inland, it softens in its green and uncontaminated hills, and it doesn’t take much to realize that, despite being a dot in the middle of the sea, Pantelleria has a deeply terrestrial soul .
In the land and in the history of this island many energies mix and collide , starting from its name, which means daughter of the wind.
But the wind is only one of the many forces that shakes it. There is also the sun, the salt, the hot waters bubbling underground.
And its volcanic soil – composed of very fine sand of eruptive origin due to the deposit of ash and lapilli – is steep and impervious, but is only apparently unsuitable for life.
In fact, it is very rich in precious microelements that make it
alive, fertile and prolific.
Pantelleria is called the Black Pearl of the Mediterranean due to its volcanic nature.
The landscape is all in contrast: on the coasts it has an otherworldly, lunar aspect, pointed by the sea and the incessant wind.
Inland, it softens in its green and uncontaminated hills, and it doesn’t take much to realize that, despite being a dot in the middle of the sea, Pantelleria has a deeply terrestrial soul .
In the land and in the history of this island many energies mix and collide , starting from its name, which means daughter of the wind.
But the wind is only one of the many forces that shakes it. There is also the sun, the salt, the hot waters bubbling underground.
And its volcanic soil – composed of very fine sand of eruptive origin due to the deposit of ash and lapilli – is steep and impervious, but is only apparently unsuitable for life.
In fact, it is very rich in precious microelements that make it
alive, fertile and prolific.
And it is in this land that we work our vines, in the form of Pantelleria saplings , cultivated in basins about 20 cm deep, useful for accumulating rainwater and protecting the bunches from the wind.
This cultivation technique, introduced by the Phoenicians and perfected and handed down over the centuries, is particularly complex and involves several stages which end with the harvest by hand in early August and mid-September.
In 2014, UNESCO finally recognized the “Agricultural practice of growing sapling vines, typical of the island of Pantelleria” as an Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
Address
Società Agricola Bbirbiciú
Via Sataria 14/2
91017 Pantelleria (TP) Italia
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