Politini Wines, Cheshunt, VIC

Salvatore (Sam) Politini was born in Francofonte, a typical rural Sicilian village surrounded by orange orchards and vineyards, where his father worked in a local winery. In 1956, at the age of twenty-one, he migrated to Australia with his brother Paolo. In Australia the two share-farmed tobacco. In 1959 they purchased their own farm at Cheshunt in the King Valley. Sam married Josie (Giuseppina) La Spina, a girl from the Ovens Valley who was born in the Sicilian mountain town of Ramacca. While Sam and Josie initially grew tobacco on their farm’s river-flats, little did they know that the dry ridge above their home would be the future site of the Politini vineyard. In 1989, together with their four children, Sam and Josie planted 12 hectares of vines to grow grapes for local wineries, later increasing this to 28 hectares. The first plantings were Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, all of which were eventually lost to phyloxera. In 1997 Shiraz and Merlot were planted. The Politini family launched their own label with its 2000 vintage. Sauvignon Blanc was planted in 2003. Recent additions to the vineyard have been the Italian grapes Sangiovese and Nero D'avola, as well as the Sicilian variety Grecanico. The Politini logo on our label is a modified version of the Trinachria, Sicily’s ancient heraldic emblem. It has a blazing Australian sun, flanked by three running legs bent at the knee, which represent the three points of Sicily’s island. It’s been said that few places have quite so much naked, molten history as Sicily. The past informs the present, and our emblem reflects both our Sicilian heritage and the opportunities offered by a new land.