The Librandi winery is a modern enterprise founded in 1950 by Antonio and Nicodemo Librandi. Nowadays, the winery is run by Nicodemo, his two sons Paolo and Raffaele, his nephew Francesco and his niece Teresa.
To this day, they remain faithful to the principles that inspired their forefathers: a great wine requires love and dedication to the land and its history.
Librandi is located in Cirò Marina, a small town in the southern Italian region of Calabria (Italy’s boot tip), on the splendid Ionian coastline. The soil in this area is naturally suited for grape growing, and the geographic position, located between the sea and the Sila Mountains, guarantees an excellent balance between day and nighttime temperatures.
All Librandi wines and olive oils are made exclusively from estate-grown grapes and olives. The Librandi family owns a total of 890 acres, 573 of which are vineyards, 247 are olive groves, and the remainding acres are dedicated to the forest. The vineyards are planted with both local varietals (Gaglioppo, Magliocco and Mantonico) and international varietals. Librandi also runs an experimental vineyard with ancient local varietals.
Eastern Calabria was once the home of a flourishing civilisation founded by migrating Greeks.
Oenotrus, an Arcadian prince who landed on their coast in the early eighth century BC, wisely governed the fate of the very first Greek colony to settle on Ionian shores. The work of Oenotrus and his people, mostly made up of expert wine-makers, was so well-appreciated by the Greeks that they named the region "Enotria Tellus”: Land of Wine.
The wines from Cremissa (the ancient name for Cirò) quickly became very popular among traders, and they were of such a high quality that they were offered as a prize to athletes who came back victorious from the Olympics, such as the great wrestler Milo of Croton. It was no coincidence, then, that Cirò was chosen as the official wine and a symbol of the Olympic Games in Mexico City in 1968.
The history of Cirò began in the distant past.
Since then, wine-making culture has been part of the history of this corner of Calabria.
It is no surprise, then, that the land which spreads from the Ionian Sea and the Alice Plain, gradually blending into the Cremissa region, still maintains to this day (and rightfully so) its ancient name of "land of wines".
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