Gabrio Bini: Sicily’s Avant-Garde "Chaos Architect" & Pantelleria’s Liquid Terroir
As our launch event for Gabrio Bini’s wines concluded with Hong Kong skylines as the backdrop, we’ve officially introduced the first grower into Terra Cotta’s home base. Started a brand new import company with Gabrio Bini in our initial portfolio, has certainly caught eyeballs on the niche segment that we’ve targeted: cool and succulent Italian wines that arrive with the Burgundy trend but won’t fade with trends.
Gabrio Bini has built a complete different market of his own thinking unlike a winemaker but as an ultra-avangarde “chaos architect”. Born into the undiscovered world of fine European wines, Bini has tasted wines with the likes of Pierre Overnoy and Stephane Tissot, travelled to far East to study the effects that different amphora containers have on wines, 10 years later, he launched his namesake wines from the estate that he purchased while vacationing with Genevieve in Pantelleria.
It is odd enough for a North urban creature to decide to buy real estate in the far South limit of Italy. Gabrio thought: why not spice it up even more? The local grape then Zibibbo, a close relative to the infamous Moscato d’asti (Uva: Moscato Bianco). Remember the ubiquitous Marsala that is available at almost every Italian trattoria: Vechio Sampere? That is what has been locally produced thanks to Zibibbo grape. However, a acid-freak such as Bini decided to harvest Zibibbo, on steep stoned-terraces that some are more than 80 years old (older than most of our readers) as early as possible to preserve its natural acidity. Within the Serragghia estate, Bini identified 2 single vineyards with superior terroir and genetic makeup that are made into respectively: Heritage and Riserva Geneviere.
Having never been down to Sicily ourselves, it is wild enough to represent one winery and designing an authentic menu that reflects the Pantelleria food tradition is another world. The encyclopedia: Food of Italy by Weatherly Roots has helped. Here are the breakdowns of our experience on the wines and food and all the chemistries in beteween:
The first flight with the Zibbibo Bianco and Zibibbo Heritage draw out a peach at its different maturity: the former, crunchy with slight hints of green herbs; the latter succulent, juicy and perfectly sweet. The light tinge of the green herbs that echos in both Zibbobi perfectly connect with the oregano on the tuna plate.
We rolled out Trofie, a pasta shape that are typically made by hand, though being in Hong kong, we are also blessed with multiple artisan dry trofie paste options. Pesto, here has been long misunderstood as an oregano and pine nut sauce, however, if we strip it to its literate meaning, it represents a “to pound” as in an oil based sauce that are made with mortar and pestle. The typical pesto di Pantelleria comprised of tomato and almonds lifted the fruit transparency in Fanino, what we call an “Adult Iced Tea”.
Recently, Bini has cracked the code of Pantelleria climate and finally made grapes such as: Nerello Mascalese. Nowadays many of his neighbors also started to follow suit. Riserva Agung is a 100% Nerello Mascalese, minus the sometimes overpowering ripe and ashy Etna fruits, supplemented with subtle red currents that truly, for us, branded Nerello Mascalese’s “Barolo of the South” Title.
Gabrio Bini’s Syrah (Cuvee Onda) has been one of the best I’ve had in the near 5 years. The one to match is Jean-Luc Jamet (Note it is a different Jamet here)’s Cote Rotie Pirate. Perhaps it is my shifting preference towards younger wines with higher proportion of fruits, Onda brought on a dark fruits sensation upfront without weighing down on the palate. Again, the everlasting fresh salad herbs echos.
To finish off, possibly the most original Carignan in the world: Riserva Giotto. This is once again, the barbecue sauce, open fire without the sticky mouthfeel. This has reminded me of Comando G’s early days: Ganache on challenged terroirs, similar to the rugged Pantelleria, yielding extreme-elegant aromatic liquid.
