Gran Sasso is a collaboration between friends, Valentino Sciotti and Camillo De Iuliis, which involves wineries and wine brands in 3 different regions, including the Zabu winery from Sicily. The company’s home is in the Abruzzo region of central Italy, where the Gran Sasso d'Italia (Great Stone of Italy) forms the centerpiece of the Parco Nazionale del Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga. Within the park are the highest mountains in continental Italy south of Alps.
In Abruzzo, the Gran Sasso range of wines is vinified at a winery facility called Rodea. The enormous former cantina sociale in the coastal town of Roseto degli Abruzzi was purchased for a relative song and completely renovated in 2004, with brand new, state of the art equipment. Here the wines from local grapes are vinified by an extremely talented winemaking team, which includes Fellipo Baccalaro and the young Marco Flacco. The team works with local growers - many of them former owners of the Cantina - utilizing their premium vineyards and viticultural expertise, while breaking with the Abruzzese model of high-output/indifferent quality. Instead, growers are rewarded for better viticultural practices, lower yields, and healthier fruit, and are coached by a team of expert viticulturists led by Remo di Giuliantonio. Critically, growers are paid by the Hectare rather than by the Kilo. The formula works well, with a dependable source of low yielding, high quality fruit and a huge team of pickers (growers) who can harvest a collective 100 Ha in 2 days rather than 2 weeks. Therefore the grapes can be picked at optimal ripeness.