The three pillars of Pillitteri
Virgil winery celebrating 25 years
Icewine, Italy and family. It’s those three things that define Pillitteri Estates Winery.
And it’s those three things the family-run winery has highlighted as it celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. It culminates with the third of three luncheon events on July 20, when after showcasing their Italian heritage and commitment to family, Pillitteri honours that third pillar: The delicious icewine for which Canadian winemakers are known globally.
“I know no other place, this is my home,” said Charlie Pillitteri, whose parents Gary and Lena immigrated to Canada from the same small town in Sicily in the mid-20th century but didn’t meet until they arrived in Canada.
They eventually put down roots in Virgil. Those roots remain firmly planted.
They began by farming tender fruit — cherries, pears, plums, apples, peaches, prunes and some grapes — but wine was always a big part of their Sicilian heritage. As the Niagara region entered the wine industry, Gary followed suit, planting wine grapes. In 1988 he made a small batch of Vidal icewine. It won a gold medal at a local competition.
“They built it from the ground up,” said Jeff Letvenuk, marketing and media manager for Pillitteri.
In June 1993 they officially opened a winery on the same property Gary and Lena settled on decades earlier.
A quarter century later they produce 120,000 cases of wine per year. A major expansion currently underway will take that production up to about 150,000 cases per year, but Charlie says it’s not so much about more.
“We keep working on quality all the time,” he said.
Instead, the expansion is about doing more, better. It will include installing four new types of fermentation processes, including two that will be the first of their kind in Canada. Like any business in any industry, the day you stop innovating is the day you start dying.
“We’re active all the time,” said Charlie.
The expansion will also feature a new area where the public can learn about the winemaking process. Its centrepiece will be a massive installation of a bunch of grapes at each of its three stages of growth.
“This installation is our 25th anniversary project,” said Charlie.
“For our 25th, we’re investing in ourselves and making better wine for the next 25 years.”
At the end of the day, making wine is similar to any other farm business. Winemakers, like tender fruit growers and cash croppers, are to a certain extent dependent on Mother Nature. Charlie says the future of grape growing and wine making is in being sustainable. For him, that doesn’t necessarily mean organic or biodynamic, two popular trends in winemaking.
“We only do what the vine needs to sustain itself,” he said.
“We want to make good wine from good grapes.”
What he doesn’t want to do, ever, is skimp on quality. In a good year, Pillitteri will release wine in all four of its classifications, from its entry-level market collection right up to reserve. But to get to reserve level, the wine must pass Pillitteri’s picky palette. He and his winemaking team, namely head winemaker Aleksandar Kolundzic, hold a high standard for their reserve wines.
If it doesn’t reach that standard, there isn’t a reserve level that year. Pillitteri says declassification helps ensure consistency in their wines, and raises all four levels of wine.
When asked to recall those best vintages, Pillitteri laughs. The bad years are always the ones the flood to his mind first.
“But when you catch a good vintage, you feel great.”
So 2010 was a good year, 2005 was small but good, and the recently released 2015 wines are also a high point, he said.
But then there was 1996.
“It rained, and rained, and rained. And rained,” he said.
Most learning moments come in the tough times, though, and that year was no different.
“If we can survive ’96, we can survive anything,” he recalled. It was, after all, only three years after the winery opened.
The July 20 luncheon is open to everyone. Visitors who purchase a lunch will receive a free glass of Pillitteri’s 25th anniversary Cabernet select late harvest wine, as well as its 25th anniversary select late harvest dessert pairing with dark and light chocolate macaroons.