“We decided to go after boxed wine, the hardest product category there is…It’s a brilliant format for sustainability.”

Partnership

The Mediterranean glitters in gradients of satisfying blue as gentle waves brush against the shoreline. On warm sand, you unfurl a blanket, anchoring it with your books and shoes against the breeze. A picnic of charcuterie and cheese emerges from an oversized beach bag, thanks to a friend eager for a nibble. Out come a couple of glasses and, with it, a pour of peach-scented Grillo, a white wine indigenous to Sicily. You turn off the phone, put your nose in the glass, then take a long sip and sigh. 

This moment captures the spirit of Alileo, a Sicilian wine brand rooted in sustainability and convivial experiences.

Origin Story

Antonio Bertone, co-founder of Alileo with his wife Alexandra Drane, never set out to join the wine industry. A former chief marketing officer for Puma, his roots in Sicily ran deep, even if his professional life had veered far from vineyards. But the COVID-19 pandemic and the illness of his mother — who split her time between Sicily and the U.S. — prompted reflection. “My mom was sick with cancer during the pandemic, and we were all locked in the kitchen with her. She was afraid she wouldn’t see Sicily again,” he shared.

In that quiet, emotional space, a plan took shape. 

Drane, Bertone, and his cousin Rosario, a trained winemaker in Sicily, decided to build something lasting for the family, economically and emotionally. “We said, ‘Let’s start a business to help create some upward mobility for my family in Sicily,'” he says. “And we’re going to start a wine business the way my cousin and I used to always joke about it when we were kids.” 

The brand name, Alileo, is a mashup of their children’s names: Alexandra, Antonio, Alessia, Lily, and Leo.

Boxed Wine, Sicilian Grapes, From the Start

From the beginning, Alileo set out to challenge the status quo of the wine industry. Rather than bottling their product, the founders embraced boxed wine, a format still stigmatized in the U.S. but one that aligned with their values. “We decided to go after boxed wine, the hardest product category there is,” Bertone says. “We could design another beautiful bottle, but there are zillions of those.”

The decision drew on Bertone’s past work redesigning sustainable packaging at Puma. With boxed wine, Alileo dramatically reduces its carbon emissions from shipping while offering wine that stays fresh for up to a month after opening. “It’s a brilliant format for sustainability,” he says.

Alileo’s wines are made from organically grown Sicilian grapes. The lineup includes aromatic Zibibbo, crisp Grillo (sold as “Young Bianco” due to DOC labeling restrictions), and Syrah in both red and a rosato (Italian rosé) bronzato styles. All wines are unfiltered, low-intervention, and free from heavy sulfites.

Zibibbo, once unfamiliar to most U.S. drinkers, is now Alileo’s top seller. “Three years in, it’s our number one box,” says Bertone. Their Syrah has also drawn attention, earning a silver medal at the Decanter World Wine Awards, the first year the competition accepted boxed entries.

In 2025, Alileo became the second Sicilian winery to earn B Corp certification. “It took us over two and a half years to get there,” Bertone says. “Being a corporation that’s not just out for profits, but also to the betterment of its workforce and its environmental conditions and standards — that was important.”

Bertone emphasizes that younger consumers, a demographic much of the wine industry has ignored to its detriment, care deeply about environmental issues. For them, boxed wine makes sense. “It’s easy to poke fun at a box because of college memories, but when you explain it, it’s a fraction of the carbon emissions you deal with when transporting glass, and the wine doesn’t go bad after 30 days,” he says.

Wine for Everyone

Aside from its beachy, carefree wine-as-lifestyle vibe, Bertone’s skateboarding roots also inform the brand’s aesthetic. Alileo’s boxes feature tape-style graphics and slogans like “Boxed wine is not a crime,” riffing on skate culture’s rebellious spirit.

Another expression of the brand’s offbeat creativity is the “Testa di Vino,” a ceramic Sicilian head designed to hold and pour wine discreetly. “We took a Testa di Moro and said, ‘Let’s make an opening in its mouth, and we’ll put the bag in there,'” Bertone says. “That way, it can be a centerpiece on a bar.” 

The head is a simple but meaningful gesture meant to create a sense of playfulness around wine. Bertone thinks the intimidation factor around the drink, from fussy sommeliers to learning unfamiliar lingo, has held the industry back. “We want people to feel like they don’t need to apologize, even if they don’t know anything about it,” he says, adding that nobody exclaims “I don’t know anything about tequila” before taking a shot.

Looking Ahead

Alileo’s focus remains on long-term impact over rapid expansion. “Some days, it feels like we’re either taking off or shutting down,” Bertone says candidly. “We’ve had to eat the cost of poor harvests and inflation because we’re too new to raise prices.” 

Yet his commitment remains steady despite adjusting to climate realities in the first few years of business. “We’re picking grapes in late June now. There’s no rain, it’s brutally hot,” Bertone says. They’ve already moved production from Marsala to the higher-elevation hills of Partinico. Being new allows the company to be agile around sourcing fruit, but it also serves as a reminder that climate change is here, not in the future. 

As Alileo gains traction, the brand offers more than a clever container and good wine at fair prices. “The world of wine needs fresh brains around it and how it’s presented to people,” Bertone says. From skateboard culture to targeting the values of younger drinkers, Alileo is proving precisely that.