Benanti

There are records of the Benanti family in Sicily since at least 1734, planting vines in the late 1800s, but it was Dr Giuseppe Benanti who established the wine estate that has made their name. He owned a pharmaceutical company, however he embarked on a decade-long study of Etna’s soils, native grapes and microclimates in the 1980s, and rapidly realised the potential of the volcano’s slopes. He hired Salvo Foti, a local oenologist, and together they created the Benanti winery in 1988 (originally named Tenuta di Castiglione). The first vintage bottled was 1990.