History
Earlier vineyard history
The Bukkuram vineyards include Zibibbo plantings dating from 1950 to 1970. In Contrada Cufurà, the vines associated with Pietranera were first planted in 1957. These pre-existing alberello vineyards later became the foundation of Marco De Bartoli’s work on Pantelleria.
A new cellar in the early 1980s
Marco De Bartoli became interested in Pantelleria in the early 1980s, convinced of the island’s potential as a winegrowing territory. He chose Contrada Bukkuram, whose name derives from an Arabic expression meaning “father of the vineyard.” The district had historically been favoured for growing Zibibbo.
He established a new cellar inside a restored eighteenth-century dammuso, the island’s traditional volcanic-stone farmhouse. The building stood among approximately five hectares of vineyards at 200 metres above sea level. Following the same place-centred principle used at Samperi, Marco gave both the cellar and its wine the name of the district.
Marco spent years speaking with Pantelleria’s most experienced and elderly growers. He studied the traditional handling of Zibibbo and, in particular, the transformation of sun-dried grapes into passito. His approach required sustained attention to individual vines and preserved the inherited practice of incorporating raisins dried under the island’s sun.
1984: the first Bukkuram passito
In 1984 Marco bottled his first passito from Bukkuram. Produced from Zibibbo through the traditional sun-drying method, it was named Bukkuram in tribute to its district. The wine marked a renewed focus on Pantelleria’s historic sweet-wine tradition. The cuvée now called Bukkuram Padre della Vigna continues to be made only in selected vintages.
1989: Zibibbo interpreted as a dry wine
In 1989 Marco began a second Pantelleria project. He selected Zibibbo from the island’s cooler, more shaded northern areas, where the fruit retained greater acidity and accumulated less sugar. Contrada Cufurà—then described as an approximately three-hectare, north-east-facing terraced vineyard at 350 metres—became the origin of Pietranera.
Pietranera presented Zibibbo as a dry white wine rather than in Pantelleria’s customary sweet form. It was conceived to express the grape’s aromatic and mineral character through fruit from volcanic terraces. The present wine draws on Contrada Cufurà and the north-facing Contrada Ghirlanda.
2006: the INTEGER approach
The INTEGER project was introduced in 2006 as an experiment rooted in traditional practices and indigenous varieties. Its name comes from the Latin integer, conveying wholeness or integrity. INTEGER Zibibbo applied this approach to Bukkuram fruit through reduced vineyard inputs, manual selection, spontaneous fermentation, skin contact, open vessels, clay amphorae, maturation on the lees, natural settling and bottling without added sulfites, filtration or fining.
2011: Sole d’Agosto
Bukkuram Sole d’Agosto first appeared with the 2011 vintage. Marco used to describe the August sun—the period when Zibibbo is laid out to dry—as the indispensable ingredient in his passito. Sole d’Agosto became the annually produced, younger and fresher expression of the Bukkuram vineyard, distinct from Padre della Vigna, which is reserved for selected vintages.
Marco died in 2011. His children Renato, Sebastiano and Giuseppina subsequently continued the family project, treating their father’s work as its foundation and maintaining its emphasis on indigenous varieties, territory and inherited methods.
2013–2016: a new visual identity
Beginning with the 2013 Sole d’Agosto vintage, the wine received a redesigned label and bottle. The label replaced the earlier close-up image of volcanic stone with the silhouette of the restored eighteenth-century Bukkuram dammuso surrounded by alberello vines. Its shape echoed Pantelleria’s traditional farmhouses, while the white, black and bronze palette was retained.
The bottle changed from 500 ml to 750 ml. Its short form, rounded shoulders and profile were inspired by the domed roofs of the island’s volcanic-stone dammusi. The new presentation was formally introduced in a 2016 article and was intended to connect the wine more visibly with Pantelleria’s landscape and building traditions.
2014: recognition of the alberello practice
On 26 November 2014, the agricultural practice of cultivating the vite ad alberello of Pantelleria was inscribed by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage. Bukkuram’s Zibibbo vines are trained in this low, free-standing bush form, adapted to the island’s terraced volcanic terrain.
Terroir
Bukkuram is located on the volcanic island of Pantelleria, south-west of Marsala. Its winery and principal vineyard occupy the island’s only plateau with a south-west exposure, at approximately 200 metres above sea level.
The Bukkuram soils are volcanic and the terrain is hilly and terraced. The low alberello vines stand at a density of 2,500 plants per hectare. Traditional dry walls built from volcanic stone delimit the outdoor areas used to dry Zibibbo grapes.
The dry-wine vineyards lie in the cooler northern sector of Pantelleria. Contrada Cufurà occupies a terraced, north-east-facing slope at approximately 350 metres. Contrada Ghirlanda is also north-facing. These more shaded positions allow the grapes to retain higher acidity and reach harvest with lower sugar levels than fruit grown for passito.
Pantelleria’s strong August sun is integral to the passito process: selected clusters are laid outdoors to lose water and concentrate their sugars, colour and aromas. Vintage variation is considered especially pronounced on the island and guides the distinction between the annually produced Sole d’Agosto and Padre della Vigna, which is made only in selected vintages.
Winemaking
All documented Bukkuram vineyards are planted to Zibibbo and trained as low, free-standing alberello pantesco bushes at 2,500 vines per hectare. This traditional Pantellerian practice was inscribed by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage on 26 November 2014. The vines occupy volcanic terraces, and volcanic-stone walls form part of the working landscape.
Harvesting is manual. Grapes for the passiti are picked in separate stages: fruit intended for drying is gathered during August, while the remaining grapes continue ripening on the vines until early September. The 2023 Sole d’Agosto sheet places the two harvests in the second week of August and first week of September. Padre della Vigna follows the same broad two-stage schedule. Dry-wine fruit from Cufurà and Ghirlanda is harvested in the first week of September.
INTEGER Zibibbo uses late-forming clusters from lateral shoots, locally called sganguna. They are picked during the first ten days of October and do not mature adequately in every vintage, particularly in very humid or rainy years.
For INTEGER Zibibbo, chemical fertilizers and herbicides are avoided. Phytosanitary treatments are sharply reduced and limited to small doses of sulfur and copper. Yields are lowered, clusters are selected by hand, harvesting uses small containers, and the journey from vineyard to cellar is kept short. These input restrictions are documented specifically for INTEGER rather than as an estate-wide certification.
Reported yields differ by intended production: 2.5 t/ha for INTEGER Zibibbo, 4 t/ha for Sole d’Agosto, 5 t/ha for the dry Zibibbo vineyards and 25 hl/ha for Padre della Vigna.
Cellar
Production takes place in a restored eighteenth-century dammuso in Contrada Bukkuram. The traditional Pantellerian farmhouse contains the passito production area, while the visitor route includes both production and maturation spaces.
Traditional passito process
Passito production begins with a staged manual harvest. For Padre della Vigna, 50% of the crop is laid in the sun for at least four weeks in dedicated drying areas enclosed by thick volcanic-stone walls. The remaining grapes continue ripening on the vines until September. Once fermentation is well advanced, the previously dried fruit is added and macerates for approximately three months, balancing alcohol with residual sugar. The 2021 Padre della Vigna matured for 30 months in 225-litre French-oak vessels followed by six months in stainless steel.
Sole d’Agosto follows a shorter annual interpretation. Part of the crop is sun-dried for at least two weeks, while the balance remains on the vine until September. The base wine ferments with indigenous yeasts. The dried grapes are destemmed by hand, added to the fermenting wine and macerated for about three months, contributing sugar, colour and aromas. Maturation includes at least six months in barrel followed by stainless steel before bottling.
Dry Zibibbo
For dry Zibibbo from Cufurà and Ghirlanda, rigorously selected clusters are destemmed, gently pressed and macerated at controlled temperature for approximately 24 hours. Soft pressing is followed by low-temperature settling for 48 hours. The clear must ferments with indigenous yeasts in temperature-controlled stainless-steel vats. The current technical specification provides for nine months of maturation in stainless steel.
INTEGER Zibibbo
INTEGER Zibibbo is based on manual selection and gentle destemming. Skin maceration continues throughout spontaneous fermentation with indigenous yeasts in open vats and clay amphorae, without pumping over or punching down. Temperature is not directly controlled. Both alcoholic and malolactic fermentations are completed.
After racking, the wine remains in the same vessels on its fine lees for approximately one year at ambient cellar temperature. Periodic lees stirring is part of the INTEGER approach. Clarification occurs through natural sedimentation. The wine is bottled without refrigeration, filtration, fining, stabilization, correction or added sulfites.
Philosophy
Bukkuram was conceived around the identity of Pantelleria rather than as a transplanted winemaking model. The cellar took the name of its district, occupies a traditional dammuso and works exclusively with the island’s indigenous Zibibbo. Marco De Bartoli’s years of conversation with elderly growers reflect an effort to learn the inherited craft of sun-drying rather than replace it.
Marco treated wine as a cultural synthesis and described a grape variety as the integration of the vine with its environment. At Bukkuram, this principle produced two parallel directions: preserving the island’s passito tradition and testing Zibibbo’s capacity to become a dry wine in cooler northern vineyards.
The INTEGER project expresses the most explicitly low-intervention side of this philosophy. Indigenous grapes, restricted vineyard inputs, spontaneous fermentation, open vessels, amphorae, long contact with the lees, natural sedimentation and the avoidance of correction, filtration and added sulfites are intended to preserve the integrity of grape and place until the wine reaches natural stability.
Vintage differences remain central to the passito range. Sole d’Agosto is made annually as a younger expression, while Padre della Vigna is reserved for selected vintages capable of achieving the intended relationship between structure, acidity and sweetness.
Renato, Sebastiano and Giuseppina continue the project with their father’s work as its point of origin. Their stated direction links indigenous varieties, territorial identity, traditional practice and selective experimentation.