Once Upon a Time the Cricketer, New York.

New York – “Once Upon a Time…”, “Once Upon a Time…”: the most beautiful fairy tales begin this way. And it is a bit of a fairy tale, too, that of Grillante, the organic and sustainable sparkling wine born from the vineyards of Cantine Europa, a historic agricultural cooperative society in Western Sicily, which has become the star of one of the world’s most exclusive events: the “Once Upon a Kitchen” charity dinner, held last night in New York’s stunning Gotham Hall, between the famous Empire State Building and glittering Time Square.

The three masters of international cuisine, Massimo Bottura, chef and patron of the 3* Michelin “Osteria Francescana,” Joan Roca, culinary genius of the 3* Michelin “El Celler de Can Roca” and Mauro Colagreco, soul of the 2* Michelin “Mirazur” – number 1, 2 and 3 in the world, respectively – and Christina Tosi, chef, pastry chef, judge of Masterchef Jr USA and founder of Milk Bar, a very famous pastry shop in Brooklyn, turned a dream into reality, cooking together for the prestigious charity dinner organized by the GR8 agency in favor of God’s Love We Deliver, a charity founded in 1985 that prepares and delivers meals, giving nutritional advice to people living with serious illnesses in the New York metropolitan area. With them was internationally renowned winemaker Roberto Cipresso, who selected the evening’s wines. These included Grillante, which, as the official sparkling wine of the event, was served both during the aperitif and as the final accompaniment with Apple Pie – ISH, Christina Tosi’s world-famous apple pie.

Because of the quality of its grapes, Grillante can be considered the wine that symbolizes the entire Mediterranean, its peoples, its tourism, and its most fascinating elements. But it is, at the same time, a wine that is completely different from its predecessors, as winemaker Roberto Cipresso explains: “I chose to present Il Grillante during this important evening in New York because it represents a “new page” of Sicilian wine from many points of view: for the cultivation and production regime-organic and sustainable, for the modernity and freshness of its organoleptic style, for the aesthetic choices of its packaging. But most of all, it is an absolute novelty of its kind because, due to the earliness of the Grillo variety and the latitude of its cultivation, it is the first wine to be presented to the public in the vintage of its harvest, and beats any Italian “novello” or French Beaujolais Nouveau on time.”

Inspired by the shimmering waves of the Sicilian sea, in fact, Grillante, an organic sparkling wine made from Grillo grapes produced by the Charmat method, comes from a harvest that takes place as early as the first decade of August so that the wine can exist before the end of summer. Thus, Once Upon a Kitchen’s Grillante is a 2018 sparkling wine made from the 2018 vintage.

In addition, Grillante is an organic and sustainable sparkling wine where the former term refers to its cultivation and production regime and the latter to the fact that the grapes from which it is made are derived from the late thinning of Grillo vineyards destined for higher oenological goals, that is, they are brilliantly recovered rather than simply discarded. Its production, in fact, is part of the three-year project “Integrated Approach for the Development of Innovative Products in the Leading Sectors of the Sicilian Agribusiness Sector,” funded by the Horizon 2020 Program, in which Cantine Europa collaborated with the University of Palermo and the Biopek Snc dairy in Gibellina (TP).

Grillante, also known in Italy as “Bollicine di Sicilia,” is in fact produced with a reduced use of oenological adjuvants. Through the waste products of the entire wine supply chain (distilled pomace and pruning waste), a high quality compost was created for agronomic use under an organic regime. The compost has been used for both wine production and cheese production enriched in natural nutraceuticals (phenolic extracts from wine by-products). Both productions–of Grillante and dairy products–are authenticable and traceable with a view to creating a circular economy supply chain attentive to the safety and verification of the origin and authenticity of the raw material used for processing.

“Il Grillante” brought to the tables of the prestigious New York event the commitment and passion of 2,100 Sicilian families: the members of Cantine Europa who every day cultivate the land with love and with the desire to carry on the traditions they received from their fathers to pass them on, in turn, to their children. And the event in New York is only the first of one of the great goals that Cantine Europa has achieved with the aim of becoming a reference point in the international wine world, also thanks to the quality and uniqueness of an iconic wine such as Grillante,” – commented Cantine Europa’s New Development Plan Manager Ada Rosa Balzan.

The landmark charity dinner in the Big Apple’s Christmas, then, not only spoke Italian but also did so by looking to the future with a view to sustainability and innovation.Editorial staff

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