La Vela

After working many years as an enologist for a large Sicilian winery, in 2019 Gaspare La Vela decided to start his own winery with his wife Monica. They own about 4 hectares (~10 acres) of organic-certified vineyards between Mazara del Vallo and Marsala in western Sicily. Gaspare’s last name (La Vela means “The Sail”), their love for the sea and for sailing led them to name their wines after sailboat parts: Strallo (forestay), Randa, (mainsail), Boma (boom), and Sartie (shroud). They like to define themselves as wine artisans and pride themselves for not using chemistry to make their wines which are organic and not filtered, stabilized, or clarified. They care very much about the environment and utilize plant-based synthetic corks made from sugar beets polymers and 100% natural biodegradable cotton labels. They make about 9,500 bottles (~790 cases) of Grillo, Zibibbo, Perricone/ Syrah blend, and Marsala Vergine which are numbered and manually sealed with wax.