Italy · Western Sicily & Trapani Coast

Cantine Colomba Bianca

A western Sicilian cooperative founded in 1970, farming more than 1,800 certified organic hectares with 2,480 member growers across the Trapani province. Known for aromatic single-varietal whites from Zibibbo and Catarratto.

The producer

Cantine Colomba Bianca is one of western Sicily's largest organic cooperatives, headquartered in Mazara del Vallo in the Trapani province. Nearly 2,500 member growers farm more than 1,800 certified organic hectares across the southwestern coast, feeding six facilities that handle fermentation, stabilisation, and bottling. The cooperative grows over 32 varieties, autochthonous Sicilian and international, and its total cellar capacity exceeds 14 million litres. That scale is the argument: Colomba Bianca coordinates large-scale organic viticulture and turns it into consistent single-varietal whites that hold their own at international competition.

The Vitese range is the cooperative's core commercial line, built around aromatic native Sicilian varieties. The Vitese Zibibbo, made from Zibibbo (Muscat d'Alexandrie), has won gold at Mundus Vini, Concours Mondial Bruxelles, and Berliner Wein Trophy in recent successive years. Organic farming began here in 1990 under winemaker Carlo Ferracane, well before certification carried market value in Sicily. The Crudo line takes a different path: Catarratto blended with Zibibbo, adding a sharper acid line to the aromatic base, with export placement in the Swedish state retail network.

Known for

Organic single-varietal Sicilian whites, Zibibbo

Notable facts

The story

The Dove in the Vines

On a spring day in 1970, Gaetano Taschetta, Giuseppe Chirco, and Ignazio Oliveri were walking a vineyard in the Trapani countryside, working out the shape of a new cooperative. A white dove was resting in the vines. The image stayed with them. They named the cooperative Colomba Bianca, white dove in Italian, after what they had seen that morning. More than fifty years later, the dove still appears on the cooperative's bottles, and the name still connects back to a single afternoon in a Trapani vineyard before any wine had been made or any member had signed on.

From the atlas

Cantine Colomba Bianca

At A Glance

The Producer

Cantine Colomba Bianca makes its argument from scale, not rarity. Nearly 2,500 member growers farm more than 1,800 certified organic hectares across the Trapani province of western Sicily, feeding six facilities that handle everything from fermentation to bottling. The cooperative's total cellar capacity exceeds 14 million litres. Those numbers are not decoration. They are the foundation of what Colomba Bianca actually does: coordinate large-scale organic viticulture across western Sicily and turn it into consistent single-varietal whites that hold their own at international competition.

The cooperative was founded in 1970 and began transforming its own grapes at the Tre Cupole facility in 1980. It grows over 32 varieties, both autochthonous Sicilian and international. The core commercial work sits in the Vitese range, where the Zibibbo bottling has collected gold medals at Mundus Vini, Concours Mondial Bruxelles, and Berliner Wein Trophy in successive recent years.

Place

Mazara del Vallo sits on the southwestern coast of Sicily, in the Trapani province, a few kilometres from the Strait of Sicily where the Mediterranean narrows toward Tunisia. This is western Sicilian wine country, distinct from the Etna-focused eastern half of the island that now draws most international attention. The western province is broader, flatter, and hotter than the volcanic northeast. The Mediterranean climate here is dry and wind-driven, with long growing seasons that push grapes toward full aromatic development. Zibibbo, the key aromatic variety, has deep roots in this part of Sicily: it was brought to the island centuries ago and has adapted to the warm, dry conditions of the western coast, where it produces intensely perfumed grapes even at cooperative scale.

The Trapani province label appears on Colomba Bianca bottles rather than a single village or cru designation, reflecting the cooperative model: member parcels are spread across the territory rather than concentrated on one estate.

Soil And Site

The Trapani countryside where Colomba Bianca's member growers farm is predominantly calcareous clay and sandy soils, typical of Sicily's southwestern flank. These soils retain warmth, drain efficiently in the wet season, and keep vine stress low enough to allow full phenolic ripeness without excessive alcohol. Zibibbo is well suited to this soil type: its thick skins tolerate the heat and the aromatic compounds develop fully as the fruit hangs into late summer. The cooperative's traceability model, which tracks each member parcel from vine to bottling line, is what allows a producer of this size to maintain vineyard-level quality accountability rather than blending everything to a single anonymous floor.

Story

Colomba Bianca's organic commitment began in 1990, when winemaker Carlo Ferracane led the first vineyard conversions under biological farming methods. This was early for Sicily: organic wine was not yet commercially rewarded, and the cost of conversion fell on member growers who could not guarantee a market premium. Ferracane's push started a process that took decades to complete. By the time the cooperative's organic acreage crossed 1,800 certified hectares, the work had run for more than thirty years and covered the majority of member-farmed land.

In 1997, Leonardo Taschetta became President and redirected the cooperative's production philosophy toward what the cooperative describes as the value of wine as a land-rooted product. The Vitese range includes a single-varietal Zibibbo bottling.

Vineyards And Cellar

Farming across 2,480 member holdings is standardised through the cooperative's traceability model, which applies unified quality standards from vineyard management through to bottling. Organic certification covers more than 1,800 hectares, meaning the majority of Colomba Bianca's grapes are grown without synthetic pesticides or herbicides. Five of the cooperative's six facilities are dedicated to winemaking; the sixth handles bottling exclusively. This separation allows fermentation, stabilisation, and ageing to happen at winery sites close to the vineyards before the finished wine moves to a centralised bottling line.

Zibibbo is harvested when the aromatic compounds in the thick skins reach full development, which in western Sicily's hot, dry climate typically means a late-summer pick timed for freshness rather than maximum sugar. The resulting wine is pressed gently to preserve the floral and citrus character in the grape's aromatic fraction.

Wines

The Vitese range is Colomba Bianca's primary single-varietal line. The Vitese Zibibbo is made from Zibibbo, the Sicilian name for Muscat d'Alexandrie, a thick-skinned, intensely aromatic white grape with a long history in the warm western islands of the Mediterranean. In the glass it is straw-yellow and limpid, with citrus and stone fruit on the nose: lemon and cedar up front, then apricot and pineapple, with orange blossom and jasmine underneath. On the palate, acidity and a soft residual sweetness run alongside each other, giving the wine a sapid, moreish character instead of a straightforwardly dry finish. It is not a heavy wine despite the warm-climate grape: the aromatic lift is the point.

The Crudo line offers a different architecture. Crudo Catarratto Zibibbo blends Catarratto, a high-acid native Sicilian white variety, with Zibibbo, pairing the structural freshness of Catarratto with Zibibbo's aromatic weight. The blend is organic and appears in export markets including the Swedish state retail network. No further range positions are confirmed in verified sources.

Across both lines, the cooperative's focus sits firmly on aromatic whites from autochthonous Sicilian varieties instead of on the international grapes that make up part of the 32-variety portfolio.

In The Glass

Vitese Zibibbo opens with a wave of orange blossom and jasmine before the citrus arrives: lemon peel and cedar come forward first, followed by ripe apricot and pineapple. The aromatic intensity is what Zibibbo does in warm climates, where the thick skins concentrate perfume through the long growing season. In the mouth the wine is soft-textured with a gentle sweetness that does not read as dessert-weight; acidity keeps it from feeling flat, and the finish leaves a sapid, slightly mineral trace. There is no oak character. The wine is about the grape's aromatic range, not cellar intervention.

Crudo Catarratto Zibibbo adds Catarratto's sharper acid line to the aromatic base, making a wine with more grip and less roundness than the Vitese bottling. Where the Vitese Zibibbo is built around perfume and gentle balance, the Crudo is positioned as a crisper, drier proposition for export markets that want a Sicilian white with enough freshness to work at table.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with Vitese Zibibbo. Zibibbo is Muscat d'Alexandrie under a Sicilian name, and this bottling shows what the grape produces in western Sicily's hot, dry climate: intense orange blossom, lemon, apricot, and jasmine rising from the glass, with soft acidity and a low residual sweetness that keeps the palate lively. It is made from Zibibbo, the Sicilian name for Muscat d'Alexandrie. Gold medals at three international competitions in two years suggest the consistency is real. A single bottle makes the cooperative's aromatic argument more clearly than any description of its scale.

Anecdote

On a spring day in 1970, Gaetano Taschetta, Giuseppe Chirco, and Ignazio Oliveri were walking a vineyard in the Trapani countryside, working out the shape of a new cooperative. A white dove was resting in the vines. The image stayed with them. They named the cooperative Colomba Bianca, white dove in Italian, after what they had seen that morning. More than fifty years later, the dove still appears on the cooperative's bottles, and the name still connects back to a single afternoon in a Trapani vineyard before any wine had been made or any member had signed on.

Final Word

Colomba Bianca is one of the few large Sicilian cooperatives to have built its organic commitment from the inside out, starting in 1990 before the certification carried market value and covering the majority of its member land by the time western Sicily attracted strong international attention. The Vitese Zibibbo is the clearest bottle in the range: aromatic, low-intervention, and made from a grape that few people know well enough. That gap is worth closing.

Sources

Open Cantine Colomba Bianca in the interactive map →