Discover the Palmento Costanzo brand: here’s our interview.

The Palmento Costanzo Winery is a Sicilian winery whose lands fall within the Etna Park, demonstrating how these lands can yield unique aromas and colors. Indeed, the wines of Palmento Costanzo seem to be a balanced mix of the richness of the territory and immense love for the winemaking tradition. It is precisely in the Etna territory that the Costanzo family embarked on their project to recover the territorial viticultural heritage in 2010, restoring the breathtaking terraced vineyards and an ancient palmento to be converted into a winery.

The Palmento Costanzo winery has been able to find the right balance between tradition and quality. The wine produced is a great expression of the potential of the Etna territory, whose climatic and morphological peculiarities allow for the production of fruits rich in aromas and nuances. A magical environment of earth, water, air, and fire makes this territory a treasure trove of extraordinary biodiversity, unique in the world, fertile, and particularly suitable for agriculture and vine cultivation.
Palmento is located in Contrada Santo Spirito, on the northern slope of Etna, and was established by the Costanzo family to recover the ancient farmhouse and winery dating back to the mid-18th century.

We love these artisans, these producers of unique, certified, and award-winning delicacies: they are real treasures embedded in our Peninsula between seas and mountains, and in the most remote streets of villages and countryside. We do not just engage with their products, but we want to learn more closely about the protagonists of this brand. That is why we sent some questions to the ones who handle communication with us.

Stay with us to get to know Palmento Costanzo: read the answers!
 

• Who are we talking to?
  I am Valeria Agosta, owner
   
• Is the company family-run? In which year was the company founded and who was the founder?
  Yes, the company is family-run and was founded in 2010. 
   
• Who was the founder and what was their training or what field of work and profession they came from if different from the current one?
  Our story begins in 2010 in Passopisciaro, a frazione of Castiglione di Sicilia, within an ancient 19th-century palmento, restored through a conservation project conducted according to the principles of bioarchitecture.
   
• What is the real reason or triggering fact behind the birth of this company and when did it happen?
  Everything comes from a passion for wine and an inexhaustible desire to enhance our land and that baggage of memories generated by Etna.
   
• What is your relationship with the land of origin and its typicity? And why do you want to tell stories about it with your products?
  With commitment and respect, we want to pay tribute to the first winemakers who wove the history of Etna viticulture through the enhancement of autochthonous vines cultivated manually in organic Alberello style. 
   
• What was the first product you created?
  The first product we created was the Nero di Sei 2011. A child of a warm vintage. 
   
• What is the product that you now consider to be your “flagship”?
  Our wine produced from pre-phylloxera vines: the Prefillossera Etna DOC 2016. A wine that takes us back to the late 1800s, to a turning point that marked the history of viticulture: the invasion of phylloxera, an insect from America that destroyed almost 70% of the European vineyard. 
  In some cases, however, the vines managed to withstand the phylloxera invasion thanks to the particular pedoclimatic characteristics of the volcano, especially the soil composed of volcanic sands, which allowed this vineyard to thrive for a long time and, today, to give us a wine of great intensity. 
   
• And what is the product that throughout the company’s history has most represented its beating heart, philosophy, and soul?
  The Contrada Santo Spirito, a wine that comes from the selection of the oldest vines we have in the company and takes its name from the belonging contrada. With its depth in expressing the territory, it tells the authentic soul of the northern slope of the volcano and the belonging to Etna as a terroir of great history and cultural strength, enhancing the pedoclimatic differences that every corner of the volcano safeguards.
  Since 2016, we have decided to vinify separately, but in the same way, the three areas of our vineyard where the old vines are located, giving life to three different wines that take their names from the parcels (cadastral survey) of the vineyard from which they originate: 466, 468, and 464. Wines that demonstrate the explainable relationship between Nerello Mascalese and the terroir of Etna through the extraordinary diversity of a wine produced from three areas of the same vineyard.
   
• Let’s talk about today: how much has the company grown since its inception? Can we have some numbers?
  We started with 6 hectares around the ancient palmento in Contrada Santo Spirito, in the village of Passopisciaro, on the northern slope of Etna. Today, we cultivate 18 hectares of vineyards and 6 hectares of olive groves, following the principles of organic agriculture in other Etnean contrades, especially Contrada Feudo di Mezzo and Contrada Cavaliere.
   
• At this moment: more tradition or more innovation?
  Both, but in the right balance: this has always been our company philosophy. 
   
• What has been the most important evolution of the company to get it to what it is today?
  The most important evolution of the company has been the various efforts to restore the century-old terraced vines on their own roots and an ancient palmento to be converted into a winery. 
   
• Talking about the future: what future awaits the company? Are there any changes or new evolutionary processes planned?
  Our research is constant; we want to achieve the best results in every aspect: at the moment we are creating a nursery within the company to preserve the genetic and historical heritage of our century-old vines.
   
• Do you plan to create new products?
  We have two new projects coming: the production of sparkling wines and the production of wines on the southwestern slope of Etna, in Contrada Cavaliere.
   
• Having focused on Spaghetti & Mandolino, how important is online sales for you, what has been your relationship in the past with this sales channel and how do you see it in the future?
  We have always focused on the online sale of our products, a sales channel that has gained a lot of space given the historical moment we all find ourselves in.
   
• Value: what has it been, what is it today, and what will it be in the future for your company?
  The territoriality, the climatic and morphological peculiarities of the production areas, respect for the environment, and the work of man are the most important values upon which our company is founded, thus ensuring the well-being and integrity of its wine. Attentive to the values of tradition and quality, our goal is to produce a unique excellence in its kind, allowing the territory to express its maximum potential in the wine, through the production of manually cultivated organic vines.

S&M