Sustainable development | Sicilian wines set an example

Wine producers are at the forefront of global warming, especially in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea where Sicily winegrowers are working hard to curb its negative impacts. They adopt an increasingly trendy principle in wine: sustainable development. What about it?

(Vittoria) At the beginning of October, the harvest has long been over in southern Sicily. However, at Arianna Occhipinti’s vineyard, the press is full. In the middle of the cellar, the producer sorts the freshly picked muscat bunches.

Despite her young age, Arianna Occhipinti is finishing her twentieth harvest. For the first time in his career, a plot of vines flowered twice during the summer. This phenomenon is not uncommon in vineyards located in Ecuador, but in Sicily it is unheard of.

“I harvested the Muscat and Grillo plot twice,” says the winegrower. This will allow me to fill my tanks a little more, because we lost almost 50% of the harvest this year due to downy mildew,” a cryptogamic disease caused by a phytopathogenic fungus.

At the same time, dozens of experts gathered in Sciacca, in the north of the country, as part of the second symposium on sustainable development. Because although organic farming is widespread on the island, scientists and winegrowers agree that more efforts must be made. This new strategy has a name: sustainable development.

Sicilian glass

Planting trees, recovering water, protecting bees, the concept of sustainable development is vast. It is even too vast in the eyes of the director of the center for sustainability and ecological transition at the University of Palermo, Maurizio Cellura. “All the winegrowers say that they are greener than their neighbor,” he says. We need to put in place ways to calculate it and prove it. »

To do this, Sicily relies on an easily calculated aspect: glass. According to Lucrezia Lamastra, professor at the Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, almost 50% of wine’s greenhouse gas emissions come from glass container.

To reduce this impact, Sicily has teamed up with the company OI to create the first recycled wine bottle made solely with glass from the island.

“Citizens put the bottles aside once they are empty, then municipalities collect them,” explains Ernesto Ghigna, European marketing director of the OI. We don’t want to recycle the bottles anyway. By using glass only from the island, transport emissions are further reduced. »

The Sicilian bottle is recognizable thanks to a print representing the island. In addition to being made of recycled material, the container has another advantage: it is lighter, 410 g rather than the average of 500 g. Its transport is therefore more ecological.

Biodiversity

Very close to the baroque town of Noto, in the south of the country, the Planeta estate was established in 1998 in the aptly named place Buonivini (good wine). The vine grows in chalky soil where the sea cuts the horizon. In the middle of the landscape, a plot of vines has been replaced by almond trees. Right next door, pomegranates and pecans are slowly ripening. “We wanted to encourage the diversity of cultures on the estate,” says Viviana Pitino, reception manager at Planeta. Different trees mean different birds, different insects and better soil health. »

This approach is encouraged by the Sicilian foundation for sustainable development, SOSTain. And it even set a standard: any vineyard with an area greater than 15 hectares must maintain a natural, uncultivated area of ​​at least 5%.

This is what Arianna Occhipinti also did. At the entrance to the estate, orange trees are filled with fruit. Near the vines, the winegrower also cultivates a large vegetable garden and ancestral varieties of cereals. While the press has finished its work and the greenish liquid now rests in the vat, she takes a break. She dips her bread in olive oil prepared with the estate’s old trees. She has everything in place to harvest for the next 20 vintages.

To drink

Sicilian freshness

The next arrival of the Alastro vintage in Quebec will be bottled in a bottle made of recycled Sicilian glass. It will contain the same blend of Grecanico and Sauvignon Blanc whose fruits are harvested in the Menfi region. Moderately aromatic, the crisp attack is surprising for the warm terroir of the island. Notes of beeswax and flowers linger for a long time. Perfect to accompany oysters.

Alastro Planeta Sicilia 2022, $20.45

Altitude white

When the Di Giovanna family settled in the hills of Sambuca di Sicilia in the 1960s, they planted fashionable grape varieties: cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, merlot. Today, she tears them off. Like many Sicilian winegrowers, the Di Giovannas rely on local varieties, such as grillo, because they are more resistant to drought. The family estate has another advantage: its vines are planted at an altitude of more than 500 meters. This white has a lovely bouquet of peach, thyme and Meyer lemon. On the palate, it is generous, delicious, and its finish has just enough acidity to accompany a typically Sicilian recipe: pasta with anchovies and fennel.

Di Giovanna Vurria Grillo Sicilia 2021, $22.70

New terroir

Nero d’Avola is the typical red grape variety from southern Italy. It had been put aside, considered less elegant than international varieties, but that time is over. Nero d’Avola adapts to all the terroirs of the island, but above all, it retains its acidity despite temperatures which approach 45 degrees. The Catania family planted Nero d’Avola in its ancestral terroir: Pachino. South of the town of Avola, the vines grow very close to the sea in red sand soil. The Sanloré vintage reveals seductive floral notes and tannins of great finesse. Dear ? Not really when you know that it can go through the decades without worry.

Gulfi Nero Sanloré 2018, $66.25