Perricone NoTrix 2022, Azienda Agricola Barbera

NoTrix is Perricone without the makeup. The 2022 bottling combines 90% Perricone with 10% Catanese from young vines at Vigne al Pozzo, planted in 2017 on alluvial clay threaded with sand and silt. Hand-harvested fruit spends about six days on the skins in stainless steel, fermenting with indigenous yeast before spontaneous malolactic fermentation and a rest in large, neutral Slavonian oak. It is bottled without fining or filtration. The wine is medium-bodied and lively rather than heavy: red berries and geranium lead into fine herbs, star anise and ginger, while firm, polished tannins and Menfi's familiar saline note carry the finish. Pour it cool, not cold, alongside grilled tuna, spicy fish soup, tomato-rich pasta, sausages, prosciutto or medium-aged cheese.

About the Winery

Marilena Barbera describes her work in refreshingly plain terms: no tricks, no frills, just wine. That directness rests on three generations at Tenuta Belicello, where her grandfather began planting vines in the 1920s and her father later matched varieties to the estate's varied soils. Marilena returned to Sicily after working in international law and ultimately took over after her father's death in 2006, turning an inherited responsibility into a distinctly personal project.

The estate sits near Menfi's steep Mediterranean shoreline, where coastal winds temper the heat and reduce humidity in the vines. Barbera dry-farms without irrigation, works organically and biodynamically, and has made the preservation of local grapes a central mission. Perricone, Grillo, Inzolia, Frappato and Nero d'Avola are not treated as heritage props; each is placed where Belicello's alluvial clays, sands or limestone-rich soils suit it best. Cellar work is deliberately restrained: spontaneous fermentations, neutral oak, modest sulfur and little cosmetic handling. Marilena's wines can be vivid and unconventional, but they are never vague about where they come from.