Marco De Bartoli

Bukkuram, from the Arabic “father of the vineyard”, is the name defining the area of Pantelleria preferred in ancient Arab times for the cultivation of Zibibbo grapes (Muscat of Alexandria). It is here, on the only plateau with a South-West exposure on the island, that both vineyard and winery are located, on an area of almost five hectares of land (that is 9 ac), at 200 m above sea level (656 ft), where our wine cellar is hosted in a historic dammuso (typical farmhouse) of the 18th century. The vineyard is trained as low, free-standing bushes with the “alberello pantesco” system, declared by the UNESCO World Heritage agricultural practice on 2014.

It is also here, in 1984, that Marco De Bartoli first bottled his passito wine that, as a tribute to the charming surroundings, took the name of Bukkuram, a moscato passito of Pantelleria proud to have awaken from a long hibernation the interest for a dessert wine that even Greek mythology counts among its legends.

Always in Pantelleria, in 1989, Marco decided to start the production of a new wine. He, therefore, selected Zibibbo grapes in the northern and more shaded areas of the island, more suitable to the production of white fresh wines and able to confer a higher acidity and lower sugar to the grapes. It is in Cufurà district, a three hectares vineyard (7 ac) located on a terraced slope at 350 m above sea level (1,150 ft), that Pietranera was born, a dry white wine with an intense aromatic complexity, one of a kind.