• My name is Marilena Barbera
    and I am a winegrower.
    I live and make my wines in Menfi, Sicily.

Alicante wine grapes
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Feelings and thoughts on next harvest 2013 and on the wines that I'd love to make when I grow older

Some time ago someone asked me what does harvest mean for me. A very difficult question, with a lot of possible answers. And all possible answers are just a small number compared to what you really feel.
Harvest is the end of one whole year and the beginning of everything. You measure yourself with the choices you’ve made during winter and spring, it’s an examination where you strive to prove yourself you’ve been good and you become the more inflexible judge.

It’s a game and a challenge, it’s your moment for chasing rainbows, trying to reach your dreams, to make them real.
It’s forty-five days of never-ending waiting and hectic running, no sleep, no eating, you live with the grapes and for the grapes, measuring, smelling, tasting, thinking. Expanding your senses, trying to understand the soil, the sun, the ocean, the vineyards. You dream of having a thousand eyes, a thousand ears, billions and billions of taste buds and receptors to sense everything, to feel everything.

Thinking about the wine that will be, the wine that will travel the big world all by itself to tell your story, and the story of the small world where you live.
My great wine.
I’m not sure I will be able to make it this year, but I will try for sure.

 

Tags: vendemmia

My story

My story

We have been winegrowers for three generations: a 100 years long story, a legacy of love and respect
Wine book

Wine book

Always up-to-date with all available wines and vintages: ready for browsing, or for immediate download

Photo album

Photo album

My book of photo shots from my vineyard in Sicily, available in HR for download - please cite the source

Video gallery

Video gallery

My YouTube channel with harvest stories, tastings, travels and meetings with very special people

NEWS FROM THE BLOG

Between a road map and a winery notebook, a personal digital moleskine with notes on winemaking, tastings and events, people I meet, places I see: my everyday life in the wine world.

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