A Remembrance of Sebastiano De Bartoli.
A Remembrance of Sebastiano De Bartoli.
<p><em><strong>by Kevin McKenna</strong></em></p>
<p>After a long and valiant battle against cancer, Sebastiano De Bartoli passed last<br />
week…I’ve a heavy heart. The middle child and second son of the real-life legend Marco de Bartoli, Sebio is the reason we’ve worked with the fascinating and quite often sensational wines of the two estates – the historic Marsala cellar in Contrade Samperi and the Arabic-influenced Bukkuram farm on the island of Pantelleria. While both cellars were founded by his visionary father, Sebastiano along with his brother and sister, Renato and Giuseppina, brought the wineries into the new century with equal commitment to quality and tradition.</p>
<p>A maverick about preserving the tradition of pre-British Marsala wine -- unfortified with perpetual aging in barrels at a naturally high alcohol level – Marco ran up against the law and put fear in the heart of the large and lucrative commercial Marsala producers. As a result, the fraud authorities unjustly shut down the winery for a few years. Finally, he was found to have done nothing wrong, but the closure had taken its toll and the moment arose when for his kids to move forward and for him to step back. </p>
<p>Sebastiano became responsible for the farm on Pantelleria of 6HA (dividing his time between Marsala and Pantelleria) and Renato and Gipi were in Marsala – Renato perfecting the classic method sparkling wine and fighting the authorities to finally accept their Vecchio Samperi as a legitimate regional wine with long history (though they could not label it as Marsala) and Gipi in charge of affairs. But Sebastiano also lobbied his siblings to create a new line of wines that also represented a regional tradition in both Marsala and Pantelleria – skin-contact dry white wines from Grillo (Marsala) and Zibibbo (Pantelleria) – these are the Integer line of wines.</p>
<p>Sebastiano realized that they were heading in a direction that required a change to their distribution – finding partners that were focused on and understood the importance of their work and legacy. A few of the growers with whom we were working at the time also enjoyed a deep friendship and mutual respect with Marco, and, I‘m guessing here, our name came up. Sebio contacted me and we met up at either one of the trade shows like Vini di Vignaioli or maybe it was Vinitaly itself or maybe both. That was the beginning of a rapport that I’ve always treasured and have missed terribly in recent years. It was somewhere around 2010, I think, that I showed up in Marsala and (am forever grateful) to have had some time with Marco himself<br />
and the rest of the family….in the following years Sebastiano and I spent quite a bit of time together.</p>
<p>Sebastiano was not only a vignaiolo, a thinker, a sculptor, a painter, an innovator, a bit of an infamous lothario, a collector of gorgeous vintage Italian cars, oh, and, damn, a really good cook! But also, finally, a son, brother, husband, father. And like his dad a fiercely proud, enthusiastic Sicilian. One time, for instance, he made our group stop for, what he considered, the best cannoli in a dusty, very hot and tiny town about 30 minutes before Marsala on the route from Palermo. He wasn’t wrong. Sebastiano’s many visits to the US whether with our growers on tour, with his sister on her first voyage to the US or in the company of then-fiancé, now-wife, Eleonora or as a part of the team of young “turks” - Arianna, Saša and Luca Roagna - are cherished memories for all of us.</p>
<p>I send all my best condolences to the entire De Bartoli family and especially to Elenora and the children.</p>
<p>Ci brindiamo tutti quanti con tanto affetto e tutto del mio cuore nostro carissimo<br />
collego nella battaglia per i vini di tradizione e anima. Addio, caro Sebastiano.</p>
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How to navigate the website.
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<p><u><strong>Glossary:</strong></u></p>
<p>At its core, this has always been a website written for wine professionals *attempting* to glean information on the wines we import - and hopefully see a picture of the vigneron's dog. Since the jargon can be so technical, we've added an <glossary term="glossary" title="1427">interactive glossary</glossary> to the text for those unfamiliar with the baffllingly complex world of wine terminology. Even if you're a seasoned pro, you might learn a thing or two. And if you'd rather read the content without the glossary, simply head to the main menu bar and turn it off. </p>
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<p><u><strong>A Shit-Ton of Written Content:</strong></u></p>
<p>The articles themselves can often be very long, and for this reason we developed a Propriety Pop Up System™ where you can easily scroll through various articles/wines and "pop out" to efficiently look at the rest of the content.</p>
<p>We've tried our best to pack as many dog pictures as possible in there, but the digital ink has been spilled: the cumulation of decades' worth of writings from Joe, Denyse, Kevin and Jules is here for you to read. A huge part of the work with this new website was to find better ways to condense and extract essential information you need without getting lost in all that BORING text. </p>
<p>We still think you should check it out. Don't worry, there are plenty of pictures. And you might even find the writing interesting. Or funny. Or both. </p>
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