The Mandrarossa line and Grecanico Costadune

The Settesoli wine cooperative considers the Mandrarossa line to be their best. Try the single-grape Grecanico Costadune, a very pleasing wine at an incredible price: 7 euros.

When it comes to virtuous wine cooperatives one immediately thinks of those in Alto Adige, which were the first to know for being “virtuous for the masses”. Nevertheless, there are many other noteworthy ones in the rest of Italy (and the prize that our Ultimate Guide to Italian Wine reserves for cooperatives is evidence of how important DoctorWine thinks wine cooperatives are).

During last May’s Sicilia en Primeur, I had the opportunity of re-visiting the Settesoli winery, the Menfi-based Sicilian giant that is a shining example of how cooperatives as a whole are greater than the sum of their parts. It has some 2,000 members for a total of over 6,000 hectares of vineyards, a more than qualified technical staff on the ground and in the winery and the wines are always at the top of their respective price ranges.

The Mandrarossa project is the result of a mapping of the vineyards to identify the various winegrowing districts the estates are composed of: Menfi, Montevago, Santa Margherita del Belice, Contessa Entellina and Sambuca di Sicilia. For all intensive purposes, the project is a brand of prestige that includes different lines. Costadune is the line of native, singe-grape wines that recently underwent a restyling of its labels with the adoption of a new, Burgundy-style bottle.

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