In Francavilla Angitola, just inland from Calabria's Costa degli Dei, Cantine Benvenuto is a small estate built around the revival of Zibibbo on the granitic volcanic soils of the Parco Regionale delle Serre. Founder Giovanni Celeste Benvenuto returned to his family's land in Vibo Valentia and spent more than a decade securing the right to bottle Zibibbo as IGP Calabria, becoming the first producer in the region to do so. In 2020 Eric Asimov in The New York Times named the estate's Zibibbo Calabrese among the ten best Italian whites under twenty-five dollars.
Calabria
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Guided walk through the Zibibbo vineyards inside the Parco Regionale delle Serre, followed by a cellar tour and a tasting of the estate range paired with local Calabrian products. Groups from six guests, Monday to Saturday, with optional lunch.
Book this experienceGuided walk through the Zibibbo vineyards inside the Parco Regionale delle Serre, followed by a cellar tour and a tasting of the estate range paired with local Calabrian products. Groups from six guests, Monday to Saturday, with optional lunch.
Book this experienceGiovanni Celeste Benvenuto was born in Tagliacozzo, in the Abruzzese Marsica, but spent his summers in Calabria with his father's family. He decided as a teenager that his future was in viticulture, and after a boarding-school agrarian institute in the Chieti hills he moved south to revive the abandoned vineyards his grandfather had farmed near Francavilla Angitola, in the province of Vibo Valentia. The estate's defining wine is Zibibbo. The grape, also known as Moscato di Alessandria, is best known from Pantelleria off the Sicilian coast, but Benvenuto worked for more than a decade with Calabrian authorities to have a Zibibbo bottling formally authorised under the regional IGP. For several vintages Cantine Benvenuto was the only producer in Calabria entitled to that designation. The vineyards sit inside the Parco Regionale delle Serre, on granitic volcanic soils that belong to the geological formation known as the Blocco Calabro. Altitude, granite, and proximity to both the Tyrrhenian and Ionian coasts give the Zibibbo a tighter, more mineral profile than its sun-drenched Pantelleria counterpart, while keeping the variety's signature orange-blossom and citrus aromatics. Beyond the flagship Benvenuto Zibibbo, the cellar bottles Mare (IGP Calabria Bianco), Terra (IGP Calabria Rosso) and Celeste (IGP Calabria Rosato), a Zibibbo Passito named Alchimia, an extended-skin-contact Orange and two Zibibbo-based sparklings, Sughero Storto and Mishalai. Native Calabrian varieties including Greco Nero, Magliocco Canino and Malvasia work alongside Zibibbo across the range. All vineyards are farmed organically, with hand harvest into small crates. In 2020 Eric Asimov singled out the Benvenuto Zibibbo in The New York Times as a fragrant white from a region almost no one associated with the grape. The recognition turned a one-person revival project into a reference point for what southern Calabrian whites can deliver.
Editorially verified by ItalianWines.co.uk.
Plate I · CALABRIA
Tastings
Tours
Accommodation
Walk-ins welcome 
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