The Arfò winery lies in an area of outstanding natural beauty and cultural importance. Evidence of the ancient Phoenician, Greek, Roman, and Arab colonisations are still visible. Capo Passero, the South-Easternmost tip of Sicily is very nearby and so too are the protected natural areas of Vendicari, the archaeological ruins of Eloro, the Tellaro Valley, and the Grotta di Calafarina. The towns of Noto, Ragusa Ibla, Modica, Palazzolo Acreide and Scicli, forming part of the Unesco World Heritage Sites, are all a short driving distance away.

  

The pleasant year round climate is a major contribution to the tourism industry as too is to the quality of the Nero d’Avola and Moscato di Noto grape varieties. The grape vine, together with the olive, the almond and the citrus fruit tree, is the most common crop in this country landscape. In the local dialect, the Nero d’Avola grape is called “Calaurisi”, deriving from “calea”, which means grape, and “aulisi” meaning “from Avola”. Avola is a town of aristocratic origins near Siracusa where this grape variety was first developed back in the Seventeenth Century.

It wasn’t until the early Nineteenth Century that Nero d’Avola spread throughout the Noto Valley district and other Sicilian provinces. Nero d’Avola has played a major role for the success of Pachino wines. In the early Nineteenth Century ships fully loaded with this typically strong bodied wine set off from the Marzamemi port for numerous Mediterranean and European countries.

Today, Arfò is a member of the association “Strade del Vino del Val di Noto”, whose aim is to promote the region’s natural and architectural features along with its wines and foods, through the organization of visits to all the local wineries.