Assovini launches the Manifesto of Sicilian Wine

It is, if you like, a new beginning. A path that recovers all the good that has been done in recent years but that seeks new itineraries in a single path of modernization of the system. The protagonists, most of the time, are women and at their side are the new generations of producers with a fresh point of view and attentive to new tastes. Thus the Sicilian wine sector looks to the future and does so on four main axes: wine tourism, sustainability, conscious consumption, production quality.

Which are the fixed points of the manifesto on the future of wine launched during Sicilia en Primeur 2025, the event conceived by Assovini Sicilia and now in its 21st edition, attended by over 100 journalists from all over the world involved in eleven wine tours. It is not an easy time, as is quite evident without having to remember all the factors that are working against wine today, not only Sicilian wine of course. But as always happens, complicated moments are those in which we think about new strategies, new objectives: "Today it is essential to return to our roots to reflect and respond to future challenges - says Mariangela Cambria, president of Assovini Sicilia (about a hundred wineries on the island are members) -. The next challenge is not only to maintain the high quality of wine production and invest in sustainability, but also to protect the cultural value against restrictive international dynamics, against a way of thinking that criminalises a product of civilisation, knowledge, beauty and tradition".

Starting points, as you can see, that are beginning to take into account the stimuli and reasoning that come from those who observe the dynamics of change in Sicilian wine, a sector that is the strong point of Sicilian agri-food that owes to wine, precisely, the growth in exports in recent years. Producers know this and chase away fears by seeking new paths. Some are proposed by Andrea Lonardi, master of wine, who underpins the programmatic manifesto with twelve key words that all begin with S: from History to Social, from Sustainable to Site (the strength of the place) to Style. From here an analysis that certainly highlights the weak points of the Sicilian system but also, or perhaps above all, the strong points that make it unique. "From 2000 to today, the world surface area under vine has gone from 7.8 million hectares to 7.2 million, with a reduction of -7.6%. In the same period, the Italian surface area has gone from about 720 thousand hectares to 630 thousand, with a decrease of 12%. Sicily has suffered an even more marked contraction, well beyond the trend of other Italian regions, which has led it to lose 30% of the vineyard area, going from over 140 thousand hectares to about 97 thousand - says Lonardi -. In the same period, Sicily, from a large producer of bulk wines, has increasingly promoted the marketing of bottled wines thanks also to the valuable work carried out by the creation of the Doc Sicilia and by some important social wineries that have undertaken this important process of value creation. Thanks to the increase in bottled wines, today bottling absorbs 60% of the region's vineyard area. World wine consumption has gone from 250 million hectolitres in 2007 to 221 million in 2023 (-11.6%), and if we add to this that 4 of the main markets for world wine consumption and also Sicilian wine (USA, Italy, Germany, United Kingdom) are all in decline, this forces us to think that the future of Sicilian wine is as complex as that of other important regions of the world".

Having said that, it is obvious that we cannot ignore the strong points that in Sicily are (also) the native vines: Grillo, Frappato, Nero d'Avola, Carricante, Nocera, Nerello, Perricone and Catarratto. «The history of these last 25 years leaves us three important key messages - adds Lonardi -. The return to native vines as an identity lever to tell the different territories, a tool to have varieties more suited to the Mediterranean climate and climate change. Etna has become the best-known area and with the greatest reputational value, but it cannot be the only one to support the image of Sicilian wine, but other areas with precise identities are needed. Places with a strong link between vine, territory, climate, landscape and identity of the wine. In this direction there are some important contexts that are working to help create an itinerary of Sicilian identity (among these we should mention Monreale, Vittoria, the Madonie and Pantelleria) ». But on this front there is no lack of experience from those who start from solid roots in historic wine territories and have been able to seize the opportunities offered by Etna, such as the Alessandro di Camporeale winery, a winery born and raised among the hills of the Belice valley, in the Doc Monreale territory, now managed by the fourth generation, three cousins: "We are a medium-sized company - says Benedetto Alessandro, 37 years old - with solid roots in the Doc Monreale territory and we think that the bond with the territory is the main thing. Sicily is a continent and wine must be able to tell the territories with new communication strategies, with events, trying to attract new generations. This is what we did in Camporeale and this is what we do on Etna, on the north-east side of the volcano, where we launched Generazione Alessandro on an area of ​​10 hectares, seven of which are already in production: today we make 40 thousand bottles but we aim for 60 thousand".

It is just one of many experiences: ultimately the elite of a larger system that requires other interventions. It is no coincidence that one of Lonardi's key words is "Social: rebuilding the base": « If on the one hand some Sicilian families today represent a fundamental driving force for Sicilian wine on international markets, what has been missing is the role of the social wineries. These are fundamental tools for preserving the cultivation and culture of the vine and wine - says Lonardi -. The relaunch of the social wineries must consider that public interventions to support the wine industry will be increasingly less; we can no longer base everything on this approach but we need planning and the ability to develop industrial plans. We need consolidation/aggregation plans not only through verticalization projects, but also to be able to access certain managerial skills. A more strategic and structured dialogue with the leading families of Sicilian wine is needed, to define complementary roles from a production and commercial point of view. The relaunch of social wineries is an obligation to cultivate and retain a generation of new winemakers needed to keep a region alive from a socio-economic and cultural point of view". As you can see, we are only at the beginning.