He arrived in the Aeolian Islands for the first time in 1963, when tourism was making its first timid appearances. After some summer holidays (which became longer each year), in the Seventies he moved to Salina. Always restless and curious, he is attracted by the cultivation of Malvasia, the grape that local farmers harvest in mid-September and leave to dry in the sun for a couple of weeks. According to the traditional method, during the day the grapes are exposed outdoors on racks and taken away at sunset. Hauner thus learns local winemaking techniques and integrates them with the study of ancient and modern texts.

When he decides that the knowledge he has acquired and his creativity can contribute to a wine that in the past had been famous as the “nectar of the gods”, he goes in search of plots of land that had remained uncultivated due to the strong emigration that brought thousands of Aeolians to Australia and the Americas. He manages to put together about twenty hectares that he cleans up, restores the ancient terraces and brings back to life as vineyards. He introduced some innovations: he dried the grapes on the vine and experimented with cooling techniques during fermentation. Small revolutions that fascinate experts, starting with Veronelli, and that bring Malvasia di Hauner to the tables of prestigious restaurants, first in Italy and then in France, the United States, Great Britain, Japan and other countries. The new Hauner winery was built in the 1980s in Lingua, a charming hamlet of Santa Marina Salina. The building, constructed in Aeolian style, is equipped with a modern refrigeration system and steel barrels alongside wooden ones for aging, with a total capacity of 1,200 hectolitres. The inauguration of the new winery coincides with the ever-growing interest that the reborn Malvasia is arousing among critics, journalists, television crews, winemakers, producers and simple enthusiasts of classy wines.

Visits to the winery and to the “character Carlo Hauner” are increasingly frequent and contribute to spreading the fame of the Aeolian archipelago and the prestigious wine produced there throughout the world. And it was in those years that the company added to Malvasia the Salina Bianco, the Salina Rosso (medium-strength table wines) and the Antonello, a product of great lineage aged in barrique. After the death of Carlo Hauner in February 1996, the company was energetically run by his son Carlo Junior with the precious collaboration of his wife Cristina and his sons Andrea and Michele. Today, approximately 50,000 bottles of Malvasia are produced, divided into two versions, natural and passito.

The company also produces capers, those tasty buds that the inventor of this glorious company was the first to label with the words “Capperi di Salina”. In the labels, both of the capers and the wines, we find the shapes and colours that their creator loved so much: the Aeolian architecture, the colours of the vegetation of Salina (defined as the Green Island by all the tourist brochures), the reds and oranges of the moon and the dawn, the black of the volcano, the blue of the sea. They are reproductions of his paintings.