A great passion for wine and the great bond of our family with the estate located on a hill called “Astraco di Burlò” district of Noto. Estate that looks at the city “the stone garden”, recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage for its great historical and cultural prestige.
The young Gianpaolo, born from the marriage between Giovanni Raffa and Sebastiana Mazzone, from a tender age followed with great passion his grandfather Paolino who with love and dedication cared for the vineyard on this hill between sea and mountain from sunrise to sunset.
The charm of the landscape especially at sunset, the intoxicating smells of the wonderful bunches of grapes, the heat of the July summer country, pushed the little Gianpaolo to the premature harvest of the grapes, filled naked “cuveddì”, (dry reed baskets) with boyish joy , and thinking that the grapes were ready, he brought the baskets full of fruit to his grandfather Paolino who rejected them with a sharp look and whispered to him “nun ci semu ancora” (it is not yet time for the harvest).
Gianpaolo “capia subitu” immediately understood that he had committed a mischief, he ran away as fast as a hare and taking refuge among the green saplings of the vineyard, which hid him from his grandfather’s eyes, he wondered crying where he had done wrong.
Meanwhile, the summer was flying away and in mid-September the glances between the grandfather and the grandson became increasingly sweet and tender to sanction that the time for the harvest had finally arrived. The bunches would have yielded a wine that contained, with its warm and enveloping aroma, the richness of this splendid Sicilian land but above all the hard work, under a scorching sun, of grandfather Paolino and the lively and carefree joy of the child Gianpaolo.
The school of life of the grandfather Paolino, the wise care he paid to that small vineyard, the respect for the winemaking traditions learned thanks also to the not always sweet looks of his grandfather, the warm and enveloping wind of this land open to the sun, the support serene and concrete of father Giovanni and mother Sebastiana, gave birth to a dream in Gianpaolo’s soul: the birth “of the family farm” where the cultivation and maturation of the grapes would have led to the production of a wine that it is not just a simple bottle of red nectar but something that contains the idea of the completeness of family life, and the joy of working on something to share with others.
From this deep feeling, the first “Donnaraffa” wine was born, a wine of the Nero d’Avola grape variety, with a ruby red color and lively purple traces. Wine of high organoleptic prestige, complex and of immense drinkability and pleasantness.