Alileo, the wine brand born in Gloucester and made in Italy, is being embraced by tastemakers and aficionados alike.
Alileo natural wines are nongmo, gluten-free and sugar-free. The bag-in-box format results in lower transport emissions and has a smaller carbon footprint. Each 3L box is $39.99 and is equivalent to four standard bottles of wine.
This is a story about wine, but it’s also a story about love. The plotline goes like this: Two people are trying to get the last upgrade on a flight. The guy has funky hair and is dressed like he works in creative for a sneaker company (he’s the CMO at Puma) and used to skateboard. The woman looks like a boss (she’s the CEO of ARCHANGELS) and is elegantly coiffed with good jewelry and great style. She gets the upgrade, but he eventually gets the girl.
The couple is Antonio Bertone and Alexandra Drane. They’re the brains behind Gloucester-based Sicilian natural wine brand Alileo (alileowines.com). And their differences are actually what has made their brand, and their partnership, so successful. That and their heart.
The brand was born from a dream to bring a piece of Bertone’s Sicilian history home. During Covid, Bertone’s mother was living with his family, sick with a terminal illness. He and Drane wanted to reassure her that Sicily would always have a forever place in their lives. Bertone connected with his cousin, a winemaker in Italy, and he and Drane combined her entrepreneurial background with his panache for marketing and trendspotting and the brand began to take shape.
Alileo is both forward thinking and time-honored. It uses a modern bag-in-the-box format to ensure a smaller carbon footprint but the natural wine is made using traditional methods from the west coast of Sicily. There are four varietals; a crisp white Young Grillo, a full-bodied Syrah, a deep Rosato Bronzato and the ever-popular Zibibbo Macerato. The Zibibbo is a light, fruity, citrusy white that is akin to trendy orange wines. In fact, this varietal is now being poured by the glass at Garrett Harker’s new raw bar, All That Fish + Oyster.
Alileo has also received high marks from Decanter, in addition to being embraced by Boston’s tastemakers. “We generally do better when we go against the grain,” says Bertone. Drane agrees, with a smile. She also believes their somewhat scrappy wine company born from an authentic gesture of homage and love is popular with the cool kids and the affianados allike because of the brand’s authenticity and its dedication to sustainability. “I think humans today in every walk of life, at every age and every demographic do want to make the world a better place,” she says.
If you need another reason to try Alileo, they’re releasing a new sparkling wine for the holidays. They’re also offering an elevated gift box that will have wine, of course, as well as playing cards, a book, sardines, pasta—everything one needs to get cozy at home with family and as Drane says, “drink each other in.”
Photography by: CHIARA MAGI
