Salvatore Marino Turi Catarratto 2023

Country: Italy

Region: Sicily

Type: Orange Wine

Grape: Catarratto

Salvatore Marino’s passion for wine is a classic Sicilian contradiction, rooted in both family tradition and a desire to do things differently. After growing up around his father and grandfather’s bulk wine operation in Pachino, he set out to learn the craft at a professional level, working at large wineries in California, Puglia, and Sicily. These experiences gave him technical expertise and perspective, but he was turned off by the industrial scale and commercial style of production. By 2017, he was ready to return home and establish his own small estate, farming 15 hectares of polycultural land with his wife Stefania. For Marino, being close to the vines, and working the land himself, is integral to expressing authenticity and terroir.

Among his wines, the standout is his bianco, made entirely from Catarratto, a grape he is devoted to preserving in Pachino. While Grillo dominates most replantings across Sicily, Marino’s choice to champion Catarratto sets him apart, there are only four producers still working with Catarrato locally, and he alone is planting new vineyards.

This Catarratto ferments naturally after a brief five-day maceration on the skins, then rests in concrete, producing a wine of texture, salinity, and clarity that reflects Pachino’s limestone soils and sea-swept air. Stone fruit and salty sea air mixes perfectly.