Camera di Commercio di Catania

Giusafra is the agricultural company founded by the Piana family.

The name of the company is an acronym of the family members’ names: Giuseppe, Giusi, Sara, Salvatore, Francesca.

The company is born thanks to Salvatore’s (Turi) passion, who has worked for three decades on the land and its fruits with skills and rewards.

Amounting to almost 8 hectares, at an altitude of 700 metres above sea level, the land has an olive grove, a vineyard and also a small orchard.

Centenary trees with twisted trunks and short leaves, to which young specimens have been added throughout the years, for a total of 1,500 trees, mainly of the Nocellara etnea species, and also Moresca, Biancolilla and Tonda Iblea, constitute the olive grove.

From 2009, the tree grinding is performed in-house, with the technique of cold extraction, in order to minimize the time lapse between the traditional manual harvest and the olives press.

The final product is the DOP Mount Etna extra-virgin olive oil, Na stizza di suli, Sicilian term for a drop of sunshine, which is marketed in different formats, from the single dose sachet to the aluminium or PET container with five litres of oil.

The vineyard has been regenerated in 2003 and after 4 years of productive consolidation, it has provided its first crop during the 2007 harvest.

The company, which is determined to preserve and bequeath the indigenous varieties, has focused on the production of red wine and it has chosen the Nerello mascalese and also Nerello cappuccio vines.

The training system used is that of “bush vines”, which is typical of the countryside around Mount Etna.

The grapes’ harvest is performed using the traditional system, like the vinification, achieved in red for maceration.

The grapes are softly destemmed and pressed. The must, whose submerged cap is kept constantly wet, goes through “delestage” in order to make the peculiar features of Etna red wine, its colour and tannin, stand out.

Giusafra bottles and markets two labels.

Encelado, which is affined in iron at the end of the vinification process, and Titano, which is affined in selected barrique.

web:     http://www.giusafra.it
e-mail   belpasso2001@videobank.it