That initiative drew on more than 150 years of experience in producing premium wines. Giacomo Rallo and his wife, Gabriella, along with their children Josè and Antonio, manage the estate in the line of Extreme Quality: a project that aims to take care of the details and to place man at the service of nature while pursuing continuously higher aims in terms of quality corresponding the potential of the territory.
Donnafugata is a reality that grew out of the historic wineries (founded in 1851) of the Rallo family at Marsala and their vineyards at Contessa Entellina, which lies in the heart of western Sicily. In 1989, the Rallos launched a new entrepreneurial project on the island of Pantelleria.
The name Donnafugata, literally “woman in flight,” refers to the history of the Habsburg queen Maria Carolina who was the consort of Ferdinand IV of Bourbon. In the initial years of the 19th century she “fled Naples and found refuge in the Palazzo Filangeri di Cutò at Santa Magherita Belice.
It was the writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, in his famous novel Il Gattopardo (The Leopard), who used the name Donnafugata to describe the Prince of Salina’s country estates and in particular the house in Santa Margherita, which are located in the territory of the estate’s vineyards. This history inspired the effigy of the head of a woman with her hair tossed by the wind that dominates the label of every bottle of Donnafugata as well as the illustration of the label of Mille e una Notte.
The total production of Donnafugata is obtained from about 328 hectares (810 acres) of vineyards, 260 hectares (642 acres) at Contessa Entellina and 68 hectares (168 acres) on Pantelleria.