It comes from Mazzarrone, in the province of Catania, a product that has made the greatest Italian and international pastry chefs fall in love
A company that was born from the passion and love for the territory, from the experience that has been handed down for generations and from a bet that has been decisively won: all this is Uvella, the only dehydrated grape produced entirely in Italy.
A story that began more than 50 years ago in Mazzarrone, in the province of Catania, which is not for nothing nicknamed the “city of grapes” for the extensive cultivation of the IGP table grape of Mazzarrone. My grandfather Biagio started by producing table grapes – says Rosario Raniolo, one of the founders of Uvella – and, later, my father, Giovanni Raniolo, and my uncle, Salvatore Consoli, continued by starting to market grapes, adding over time also other items such as tomatoes and various vegetables. But the core business has always been grapes. Thus was born, in 2002, the Co.Ra., a name that comes from our respective surnames, Consoli and Raniolo”.
In 2022 the great intuition arrives: to produce dehydrated grapes. “Being table grape producers, we were experts in the raw material but we had no experience with regard to processing,” continues Rosario Raniolo. “It all stems from a bet made with a Sicilian pastry chef who, knowing the quality of our company’s products and knowing that we were leaders in seedless grapes, asked us to transform seedless grapes into dehydrated raisins, since there was no company in Italy that did it”.
To be able to create this new product, the company asked for help from the Universities of Palermo and Catania who activated a research and development work. “The result was magnificent! This is how, in 2023, Uvella was born”.
Among the unique characteristics of the dehydrated grapes of Uvella there is a great attention to conservation, which takes place without preservatives and without added oils.
Using different seedless grape varieties, Uvella is produced in three different colors, black, white, and red. “The grapes that were on the market have the same color. We, who are masters of seedless culture, know its varieties. The difference lies in the color of the fresh grapes. Through studies, together with our technicians, we have had special dryers built, which allow us to preserve the organoleptic qualities and be able to maintain the taste and color”.
Each color of Uvella has its own characteristics: the white one has a muscat flavor, the red one has a higher acidity while the black one has a particular caramel flavor. “Together they create a combination of flavors that have made the pastry chefs who have used them fall in love, as well as creating a beautiful effect in the panettone that shows itself with all three colors inside them,” explains Rosario Raniolo.
Speaking of panettone, the dehydrated grapes of Uvella were chosen for the Panettone World Championship, which was held in Verona and Milan in 2023. “Uvella was the only ingredient of its kind and was therefore savored by every team. The president of the Accademia del Lievito Madre, Claudio Gatti, has become our testimonial. This has allowed us to make ourselves known to a large number of both Italian and international pastry chefs”.
A fundamental step that has led Uvella to export its products throughout Italy but also in the rest of the world, with customers in France, Germany, Canada, California, the United States and Dubai.
And the future can only look bright. “With the next edition of the Panettone World Championship, our goal is to become the main ingredient of Italian panettone and beyond. We are also planning a new step for our company: at the moment we serve artisan pastry shops and, the future idea, is to create a small snack to sell Uvella in 100-gram packages, in order to reach the consumer as well”.
Uvella is an example of how a Sicilian company founded on tradition and passion can renew itself and achieve great goals with the strength of ideas and daily work. Find out more on the www.uvella.net website.
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