Santa Cecilia Nero d’Avola Noto DOC

Sicily, 1984: a farming family seventeen generations deep decides to take their winemaking seriously. Diego Planeta sparked the shift; his daughter Francesca and nephews Alessio and Santi carried it forward, eventually building six wineries across five regions: Menfi, Vittoria, Noto, Etna, and Capo Milazzo. Each site is matched, deliberately, to the grape that suits its soil best. At Buonivini, their southernmost estate near Noto, the family built what they call an “invisible winery,” set into a hillside, its clean lines nearly hidden among carob, olive, and almond groves. It's here, in chalky-white limestone soil cooled by breezes off the Mediterranean and Ionian Seas, that nero d'avola reaches its fullest, most elegant expression. Santa Cecilia is Planeta's showcase for that power and poise, aged 14 months in French oak.

Nero d'Avola vines at Buonivini grow in white limestone soil scattered with small stones, cooled by breezes where the Mediterranean and Ionian Seas meet. Fruit for this wine comes from low-elevation sites just 35 to 40 meters above the waterline, on limestone marl flecked with pale stone, terroir that gives Santa Cecilia its signature balance of power and elegance.

Hand-harvested in late September, the grapes are destemmed and crushed, then macerated on the skins in stainless steel for 21 days before malolactic fermentation. The wine ages 14 months in French oak, 15% new, the rest second-, third-, and fourth-year barrels, for structured tannin without heavy oak influence.

Dark cherry and blackcurrant open to soft spice and toasted almond; the palate is dense and polished, with fine tannin framing a long, silky finish.