Enoliti Botanici

About

Owners & winemakers: Pietro Russino, Lorenza Barletta, and Giuseppe Fiorilla
Base wine sourcing: Natural wine from small producers, mainly in Sicily
Botanicals: Varied by wine, including lavender, chamomile, rhubarb root, cinchona bark, cinnamon, ginger, citrus peels, and many more.
Production: Made in batches of 200-500L upon request

Quick facts:

• Enoliti Botanici was founded by three friends–Giuseppe and Pietro have a background in natural wine, and Lorenza is an herbalist and pharmacist.
• The “enoliti” are made purely through the cold maceration of botanicals in wine, without the addition of alcohol, sugar, or other products. The recipes are based on traditional “medicinal wines” that have been made for thousands of years. (Hippocrates in particular extolled their virtues.)
• The base wines are sourced from artisanal producers across Sicily, including Valdibella in Camporeale, Viteadovest in Marsala, and Salvatore Marino in Pachino.
• Each wine is dedicated to a female figure: Nyx is the Greek goddess of night, Santa Ildegarda was a nun and a doctor and is the patron saint of herbalists, and Berbere is a tribute to Berber women and their spices.

“Enoliti” are inspired by the tradition of medicinal wines, which date back to the Ancient Greeks. Hippocrates wrote about using wine to extract the curative properties of different herbs to create healing elixirs. These can be considered the precursors to modern vermouths and digestivos; however, unlike most modern versions, these enoliti contain no added sugar and no added alcohol–they’re made purely from wine and botanicals. While traditionally they were used as medicine, today they are often enjoyed after a meal, or can be used in craft cocktails.

This project was born out of a partnership of three friends: Lorenza, an herbalist, brought an expert knowledge of plants and their properties, while Giuseppe and Pietro come from the hospitality and wine world. It’s through their influence that the base wines for the enoliti are all natural wines from producers in Sicily, including Valdibella in Camporeale, Viteadovest in Marsala, and Salvatore Marino in Pachino.

The enoliti are prepared in an “herbal laboratory,” where the base wines are cold macerated with the carefully chosen assortment of botanicals. They are stirred and tasted every day until the desired level of extraction has been achieved. The recipes come from ancient herbal texts, and they cut and dry many of the botanicals themselves. Due to the natural ingredients and artisanal craftsmanship, each small batch has some natural variation from the previous iterations.