Annamaria and Clara Sala, the fourth female generation at the helm of the family estate, bring to the 2024 edition a new stand in the colours of the Mediterranean Sea, a new label and the restyling of a great sustainability classic.
This 2024 will be a year dedicated to elegance and sustainability for the Mazara del Vallo-based company.
At the recently concluded edition of Vinitaly, the Sala sisters presented a new stand that embraces the colours of the surrounding nature and, in particular, the blue of the Mare Nostrum, inspired by water, an element intrinsically linked to the estate and the environment surrounding the vineyards. On the one hand, there is the Mediterranean with its perpetual motion of waves, reproduced by the play of light and shadow of the long cylinders, a structural element chosen to serve as a backdrop to the estate's space, made of recyclable material. On the other side, there are the small lakes of karstic origin, the so-called 'gorghi tondi', which give their name to the company located within the WWF nature reserve of the same name, 'Lago Preola e Gorghi Tondi'. To enhance the prevailing blue of the stand, in contrast, the majolica pattern present on various company materials since 2021 has been used, echoing the classic colours of Sicily, yellow and red, used for the floor and side wall. The brand new stand was designed by the Apulian creative agency IDEM Design.
Even in this new graphic design, there was no shortage of hot air balloons, an element particularly dear to Gorghi Tondi's visual communication, present on the label of our wines dedicated to the 12th meridian, which literally passes through the property, and with a deeper meaning than merely decorative. Balloons are a symbol of lightness, travel, slowness in its meaning of 'slow living', concepts that have always been present in the company's vision. They also represent the overall vision, thanks to the view they give from above and, last but not least, they communicate an idea of sustainability given by the eco-friendly vocation of this peculiar and evocative means of locomotion.
Speaking of novelties at the fair, the company presented an absolute novelty at Vinitaly and the restyling of one of the most famous and Instagrammable labels of all time, the White Babbit.
The first novelty is the first classic method sparkling wine produced in the company: a rosé from a single vineyard and single harvest, made from Pinot Noir grapes, aged 36 months on the lees. It is a wine that follows in the wake of curiosity and experimentation undertaken by Gorghi Tondi a few years ago and which, once again, tells of the versatility and inexhaustible surprises of 'viticulture by the sea' and of an extreme corner of Sicily, the Mazara countryside, capable of exalting elegance and territoriality, even with such a noble grape variety as black Pinto.
As with the Ziller47, the classic method project bears the name of Michele Sala, who a few years earlier had thrown down the gauntlet to Tonino Guzzo, the estate's historic oenologist, to vinify the world's most complicated black berry variety, the cross and delight of many agronomists and oenologists. That desire is now finally in the bottle with the first classic method sparkling wine produced on the family estate, with a strongly Mediterranean character. The vintage previewed at the 2024 edition of Vinitaly was the 2020 vintage.
The Pinot Noir base is obtained from a harvest carried out in early August, to preserve the freshness and aromatic component of the grapes, which are cultivated about 1 km from the sea. Part of the base wine is aged (approximately 35%) in new French oak barriques, while the remainder is refined in steel. After 9 months, the two masses are blended and the wine is bottled. The wine then matures on its lees for 36 months before disgorging, and is not dosed. In fact, the label bears the words Brut natureequivalent to Pas dosé of their French cousins and at zero dosage, to put it in the Italian way.
The second novelty is a white Babby renewed in the packaging. Our sparkling wine made from a blend of indigenous grapes (Grillo, Zibibbo and Damaschino), launched for the first time on the market in 2017, retains the classic majolica graphics to the eye, but holding the bottle in your hand you realise that the difference is substantial to the touch. The front and back labels have, in fact, been screen-printed on the bottle, making the container completely plastic-free.
Taking this desire to get rid of plastic literally, it was decided to involve in this project under the banner of sustainability and awareness-raising the non-profit organisation that has done more than any other in recent years to stir consciences to the senseless dispersal and abandonment of plastic in the environment, PlasticFree. The association is very active throughout the country with various initiatives to clean up the environment and the sea of plastic waste, and it seemed the best way to convey such an important message to a wine that, more than others, succeeds in embracing a transversal audience, which includes Millennials to the Boomers generation. Because even through wine it is possible to raise awareness on a subject, that of plastic pollution, which affects us all. The "back" of the new Babbìo also bears the "Friends of PlasticFree" logo that identifies Tenuta Gorghi Tondi as a partner of the non-profit organisation.
Tenuta Gorghi Tondi was present at Vinitaly, from 14 to 17 April 2024, in Hall 2 Sicily, at stand 31 D.
