Some producers don’t miss a shot, and Tenuta Gorghi Tondi is certainly one of them. Luck has nothing to do with it. Behind each of their wines lies a precise viticultural and winemaking project, along with genuine respect for the natural vocation of a territory where the sea plays a decisive role.
We are in south-western Sicily, in the San Nicola district between Mazara del Vallo and Marsala. The vineyards lie just a few metres from the Mediterranean, within the WWF oasis of Lake Preola and Gorghi Tondi, a still-pristine natural environment of wetlands, Mediterranean vegetation and constant breezes. The estate is run by sisters Annamaria and Clara Sala, the fourth generation of a family that has worked in wine for a century, and the fourth led by women. The Gorghi Tondi project began in 2000 with their father Michele and mother Doretta. From the outset it embraced environmentally respectful viticulture, later certified organic.
With Perrì, the Sala sisters have achieved something important: they have shown what heights of quality Perricone can reach. This ancient grape of western Sicily, also known as Pignatello, was pushed to the margins for decades because it was considered difficult and ill-suited to the market. It came close to disappearing altogether. Today, thanks precisely to estates like Gorghi Tondi, it is finally carving out a clear place among Italy’s great red wines. The work of Tonino Guzzo, the winery’s longtime oenologist, who has studied and known Perricone for years, is part of this rediscovery.
The 2024 is the first vintage of Perrì, with roughly 9,000 bottles produced. The grapes grow at around twenty metres above sea level. After about twenty days of maceration in stainless steel, the wine matures on its fine lees for at least eleven months in large French oak casks, that were chosen to leave the character of the variety unmasked, and then the wine rests in bottle. The label, too, tells a Sicilian story. It belongs to the Maioliche line and was painted by Bagheria ceramist Maurizio Scianna.
In the glass, Perrì immediately reveals a different Sicily from the more predictable one. The nose opens with small red and dark fruits, accompanied by hints of spice and a touch of Mediterranean scrub that adds depth. On the palate it seeks elegance over power. The tannin is present and well defined, and the freshness keeps the wine constantly in motion. Its true signature arrives in the finish, long and savoury, where the sea of Mazara makes itself felt. It is an intense yet measured red, with an elegance you would hardly expect from a variety long regarded as rustic.
For the pairing, we made a one-hundred-percent Sicilian choice: falsomagro, known across the island as bruciuluna. It is a large beef roll stuffed with breadcrumbs, caciocavallo, pancetta, hard-boiled eggs, peas and mortadella, slowly cooked in tomato sauce. A generous dish, rich in flavour and fat, which puts any red to the test. Perrì handled it with ease. The freshness held its own against the tomato, the tannin cleansed the palate of the filling’s richness, and the savoury quality struck a perfect dialogue with the caciocavallo. A marriage of great territorial identity, the kind that explains a wine better than any technical sheet.
Company Profile
Gorghi Tondi estate would never have come to life without the enduring love for nature of Dora, the great-grandmother of Annamaria and Clara Sala. Representing the fourth female generation in a family that has been dedicated to quality wine production for over a century, Annamaria and Clara carry forward a commitment that blends tradition with respect for the environment. The journey of Gorghi Tondi as a winery began in 2000, when Michele Sala, their father, decided, after more than forty years in the wine industry, to establish his own venture together with his wife Doretta and their two daughters. The deep connection with the land, especially with the nearby High, Middle, and Low whirlpools (the “Gorghi”), also inspired the winery’s name. This oasis, protected by the WWF since 1998, is a natural sanctuary for diverse wildlife and rare flora, a place where nature thrives alongside the vineyards. Here, the family’s approach to viticulture blends seamlessly with the surrounding environment. On a vineyard that.
GORGHI TONDI
C.da San Nicola, 91026 – Mazara del Vallo (TP)
+39 351 0930988 – info@gorghitondi.it
https://gorghitondi.it
