Biography
The Spadafora estate has been owned by the Spadafora princes for generations. The founder was Don Pietro dei Principi di Spadafora, who had inherited it from his uncle Michele de Stefani, a cultivator who raised race horses. The origins of the family go back to the 18th century. The estate suffered significant damage during the 1968 earthquake, but Don Pietro invested important resources in the reconstruction and improvement of the property, giving new emphasis on native Sicilian grapes and importing international varieties to improve the wines. The current owner is Fancesco Spadafora, son of Don Pietro, who directs the cultivation of 250 acres of vines. The marketing of bottled wine began in 1993 when Francesco Spadafora, who had just taken over the direction of the house, decided to ferment his own grapes and propose them with his own labels. Located in the township of Monreale, the estate extends over 450 overall acres, 250 planted to vines, and currently produces 300,000 reasonably priced bottles annually, some DOC, others IGT. The house philosophy is based on the utilization solely of grapes cultivated directly on the estate, which directly supervises every aspect of the production cycle with constant attention to quality based on modern viticultural criteria in the vineyards and fermentation practices in the cellars. The fruits of this rigorous philosophy were soon evident in wines of excellent quality. Today Spadafora produces one of Italy’s finest Syrahs, Sole dei Padri, from grapes cultivated in the highest part of the property, a vineyard with a north-northwestern exposure. It is a ripe and concentrated wine which needs years of time and patience to reveal all of its subtleties. A dense ruby red, elegant and persistent in aroma with notes of red and black berry fruit, blueberries and blackberries, vanilla, and tobacco, it is of important structure and roundness, rich and ample, deep, silky, and with a formidable momentum on the palate, a harmonic balance between sweet tannins and freshness, and a long finish. Excellent with red meat and full-flavored cheese.