In recent years, wine has become filled with definitions: natural, organic, biodynamic, conventional. These terms are often used as synonyms but actually indicate different agricultural practices and production choices.
Understanding them helps to navigate, especially today as attention grows towards wines connected to the territory and more transparent supply chains.
In Sicily, this is particularly evident. The variety of landscapes, soils, and grape varieties makes every choice — in the vineyard and the winery — immediately recognizable in the glass.
The expansion of the Boniviri wine catalog comes from this: a selection that combines quality, agricultural method, and project consistency.
Conventional Wine
Conventional wine represents the main share of production. In the vineyard, synthetic pesticides and fertilizers are allowed, while in the winery direct interventions are made to control every phase.
Fermentation is managed through temperature control, the use of selected yeasts, and the addition of nutrients. This allows guiding the process and achieving a stable result.
Maceration — the phase in which the must remains in contact with the skins — is also precisely regulated. This is where color and structure are extracted: pigments (anthocyanins) and tannins. Duration, temperature, and techniques such as pump-overs and punch-downs are calibrated to obtain a defined profile.
Following this, clarifications, filtrations, and the addition of sulfites are applied to stabilize the wine and keep it consistent over time.
Organic Wine
In organic wine, synthetic chemicals are excluded in the vineyard. Soil and plant management follow practices that are more respectful of natural balances.
Many of the technical tools of conventional winemaking remain possible in the winery. Temperature control, the use of selected yeasts, and filtrations are common practices.
Maceration can also be managed precisely, aiming to achieve a certain level of color and structure. The main difference therefore concerns grape cultivation.
Many of the wines in the Boniviri catalog come from producers working organically, often on a small scale and with specific attention to Sicilian local grape varieties.
Biodynamic Wine
Biodynamics introduces a further level. The vineyard is treated as an autonomous agricultural system, where soil, plants, and environment are interconnected.
Natural preparations are used, and seasonal and lunar cycles are followed. The work requires continuity and the direct presence of the producer.
In the winery, the approach tends to reduce technical interventions. Maceration is also adapted to the grapes, without fixed schemes, seeking a balance between extraction and the wine’s integrity.
In the Boniviri catalog, this type of practice is represented, among others, by the work of Maria Genovese.
Natural Wine
The term “natural wine” has no shared regulatory definition but generally refers to wines produced with minimal interventions, both in the vineyard and the winery.
Fermentation occurs spontaneously, without selected yeasts, and temperature control may be limited. Maceration also follows less standardized times: color and structure depend directly on the grape characteristics and the vintage’s course.
Filtrations and clarifications are reduced or absent, and sulfite use is minimal.
For this reason, Sicilian natural wines often stand out clearly, with profiles that directly reflect the territory.
A Selection Starting from the Supply Chain
The construction of the Boniviri catalog follows a precise logic: selecting producers who work with agricultural responsibility and maintain a close connection to the territory.
Sicily is the center of this search, with attention to native grape varieties and practices consistent with the agricultural context.
The project of Maria Genovese, with Vigna Nica in Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, fits into this path. Her Mamertino DOC comes from organic cultivation with biodynamic practices, in an area overlooking the Aeolian Islands.
These are wines that directly reflect the vineyard conditions and the choices made during winemaking.
Pairings
Production differences are also reflected in how the wine pairs with food.
- wines with longer macerations and greater extraction accompany more structured dishes
- more controlled wines are more linear and easy to pair in different contexts
- low-intervention wines move more freely, even outside conventional schemes
Natural wines, in particular, can step outside the formal wine context and approach a more everyday idea of consumption. Some have acidity and lightness such that they also work well with pizza, being smooth and immediate, almost “easy-drinking” in the simplest sense of the term.
It’s a different way of understanding wine: less tied to special occasions, closer to spontaneous consumption.
What Changes in the Glass
Choices in the vineyard and winery translate into perceptible characteristics:
- color: more stable and uniform in more controlled wines, more variable in low-intervention wines
- clarity: filtrations and clarifications lead to clearer wines; their absence can leave haziness or deposits
- aromatic profile: more defined and repeatable in technical wines, more vintage-dependent in other approaches
- structure: maceration management affects tannins and body
Choosing What to Drink
Categories help to navigate, but it matters how they are applied. Vineyard management, the type of intervention in the winery, and production scale all impact the final result.
For this reason, we continue to expand the catalog carefully, seeking projects with a clear and recognizable direction.
