At Flatiron, we love producers who own their land, farm it, and produce wines from the grapes they grow. This is the fundamental unit in the world of wine. But this is not the only model. We love boutique Californian wineries that carefully source their grapes from top sites. We love negotiant champagne producers like Krug! We are never going to pass over a winery simply because it is not indigenously rooted to its land and vines.

And we certainly weren’t going to pass on the opportunity to taste the first wines produced by Gebbia, a collaboration among Italian friends dedicated to producing minimal-intervention wines from organic sites around Italy. In certain respects, the story reminded us of Envinate, who has done something similar – and to much acclaim - in Spain.

But there are some differences between Gebbia and Envinate that we find interesting. For one, Gebbia is focused on grape varieties, and they are committed to producing only 100% varietal wines (from indigenous grapes only). The Italian context explains this difference. The tradition of blending grapes is very strong in Spain, and while it exists in Italy as well, it is also fairly common to have entire DOCs dedicated to non-blended grape varieties (such as Sangiovese in Brunello, or Nebbiolo in Barolo) as well as wines that are, by custom, simply labeled by their grape varieties, as is common in California or in Alsace. Like Barbera or Montepulciano.

We were particularly excited to learn that Gebbia’s first release would focus on Sicily. We love Sicilian wine, and in this case the site was in northwestern Sicily, to the west of Palermo, an interesting and remote terroir that we rarely come across.

The red wine is from Nero d’Avola, perhaps the signature grape of Sicily. Rich, fresh and just gushing with fruit, we found this wine to be absolutely delicious. The white wine is 100% Cataratto grown on high slopes (650 meters above sea level) that point north and east and sit on sheer limestone. These are conditions that are ideal for producing the kind of fresh, mineral-driven whites that we love to drink in the Spring. Gebbia did not disappoint!


Gebbia Terre Siciliane Catarratto 2022 - $22.99

Gebbia Terre Siciliane Nero d'Avola 2021 - $22.99