VERTICAL VINEYARDS – WHEN GRAPES GROW AMONG THE EDELWEISS. MAGICAL REDS AND WHITES THAT THRIVE EVEN IN EXTREME MOUNTAIN CONDITIONS… ALSO ON THE ISLANDS: THE “PANTELLERIA CASE” AND THE EXAMPLE OF DONNAFUGATA

They’re called the “heroes armed with hoes”. They use avant-garde techniques and technologies to cultivate on impossible terrains, with inclines of over 30%, at the feet of the highest mountains in Europe, of volcanoes, and even inaccessible coastlines, from Portugal to Slovenia, following the Alpine arc and the varying terraces perched above the sea on the islands. These heroes are challenging the wine market: and they are knocking their hardest to enter with aromatic red and white wines that are inimitable. These winemakers can be found in their rows using tiny tractors that seem like toys, they have mini racks to beat the slopes and to be able to transport the grape harvests. Vines usually produce no more than 80 quintals per hectare and many times are made up of just a few rows. Costs are more than double those for flatland vineyards. Autochthonous vineyards with poetic names: a rediscovery that offers wine together with its territory.
These viticulturists have rediscovered a landscape that was constructed centuries ago, almost forgotten, many times already in ruin: terraces with vertical slopes, rectangles of land sustained by dry-stone walls. They have managed to resurrect these inhospitable lands, so much so that they have even begun to attract tourists. The vineyards in Valtellina have officially become part of the UNESCO world heritage. “Heroism is evident in those 1200 hectares”, claim technicians. The DOC wines from the Lombard valley are obtained by pressing antique grape varieties: Rossola Nera, Pignola Valtellinese, Fortana. The “granddaddy” of these lands however is the Nebbiolo, that can be found on the fanned terraces of Carema, the extreme northwestern edge of Piedmont, on the border with Valle d’Aosta, the smallest region of Italy. And this tiny area is dominated by the highest mountains on the old continent, it is an “island” wedged between rocks and glaciers and considered a botanical enclave. For this reason it has managed to conserve its indigenous vines, with reds like Petit Rouge, Fumin, Cornalin, and whites Prié (at Morgex and La Salle, the vineyards at the foot of Monte Bianco) and Petite Arvine.
There are also the small vertical vineyards in Abruzzo, in the Peligna and Subequana valley, with the white varieties of Malvasia, Passerina, Pecorino, and Trebbiano. And along the Viola Coast, in Calabria, with its vineyards of red Malvasia Nera, Nerello Calabrese, and whites like Moscato d’Alessandria. Nerello, of the Mascalese or Cappuccio varieties, can be found in Etna Park as well. Bunches of red grapes grow alongside whites in the few rows of Cataratto. Vineyards reach the sea at Cinque Terre in Liguria, where the large green leaves of the vineyards color the harsh turf and rocks. Vermentino, Bosco, Rossese and Ciliegiolo. Piedmont also escapes the logic of small plots of land, but not its heroism when one thinks of places like Valle di Susa, the Pinerolese, or the Alta Langa. Here, as well, there are indigenous varieties like Avanà, Vosco, and also the classics, from Nebbiolo to Dolcetto and Barbera. And then there are the classics like Muller Thurgau, Traminer, Pinot and the Chardonnay of the Alto Adige, another harsh land with noteworthy production. As in the Trentino and the Veneto regions, with reds like Schiava. Or on the island of Pantelleria with its Zibbibo.
The “fil rouge” of viticulturists defined as heroes is not only the territory where they plant their vineyards, that is, on incredibly steep slopes in the mountains and along the sea, but also for the attention that they give to their product. They know that otherwise the market would be prohibited for them and that it would be impossible to confront the competition from the big wines of the flatlands. Their strength is like that of the “desert flower”, so rare yet so concentrated with aromas and perfumes.
The “Sacred Alliance” among regions to save heroic viticulture
Mountainous winemaking regions have formed an alliance with the goal of getting the European Commission to have more recognition for that which has been defined a “heroic viticulture”. Francois Stevenin, President of the Center for Research, Study, Safeguarding, Coordination, and Improvement of Mountain Viticulture (Cervim), explained that, “we are asking that in the next reforms each member state will be able to delineate geographical boundaries for the areas of mountainous viticulture with steep inclines; lands that have slopes with over 30% grades and/or altitudes above 500 meters”. Cervim (which all of the European regions that have steep mountainous viticulture adhere to) has been fighting for the recognition at a Community level of “heroic viticulture”, or grape growing on terraces or large steps; vineyards cultivated on small islands characterized by structural difficulties and by a permanent and effective level of isolation. Cervim’s request has been agreed upon by all participating regions (in Italy: Valle d’Aosta, Lombardy, Piedmont, Liguria, Sicily, Autonomous Province of Bolzano, Autonomous Province of Trento, Province of Reggio Calabria and Abruzzo; Switzerland: Cantone Vallese and Canton Ticino; Spain: Galicia; Portugal: Douro; Germany: Renania-Palatinato; Austria: Wachau and Stiria; France: Banyuls-Collioure and Rhone-Alpes). ”Many of the heroic viticulture realities are seriously at risk of being abandoned”, emphasized Stevenin. Specific interventions are necessary to support the sector, with the goal of preserving for future generations these rural monuments of rare beauty, and fruit of man’s untiring labor over the centuries…” According to a census on mountain viticulture it appears that there are 39 “heroic” viticulture areas in 17 regions, within 7 European nations, with over 500,000 people involved in over 200,000 companies, covering a total production area of 90,000 hectares.
The “Pantelleria Case”, the windy island, and the Donnafugata “example” The territory of Pantelleria falls into the heroic viticulture category as well. Historically, Chamber of Commerce statistics show that while in 1950 total vineyard area was 5,000 hectares, today, it has diminished to about 1,000, and the average farm cultivates only 3,600 sqm. Of these 1,000 hectares, 460 are DOC certified and Donnafugata cultivates about 10% of it all. The terracing in this territory implies an almost entirely manual cultivation of vineyards, the maintenance of the “basin” – which protects the plants from the wind – adds ulterior difficulties and further work for maintenance. It is a hard and exhausting job that must be adequately recompensed, and which also requires higher value products and a strong image that can improve market sales prices, that must be inevitably high, but obviously worth the excellent product. Doing some math: the density of the vineyards in Pantelleria is about 2,500 plants per hectare and the production per hectare does not surpass 40-50 quintals, which means a maximum of 2 kg per plant. Considering that the cultivation per hectare (including the harvest) currently costs about 10,000 euros (3 times more than a mechanized vineyard), the cost of producing fresh grapes is equal to 2 euros per kg. With these conditions, if these products are put on the market with the only competition being the price, then they are condemning the viticulturists of Pantelleria to extinction. It is out of the question to argue that from among the various wines that are obtained from the transformation of Zibbibo, the Passito of Pantelleria is a product of incredibly high value that should allow it to adequately remunerate the work it took to produce it as well as the indispensable marketing costs to give it the visibility that such a small and isolated production needs. If passion is what is needed to produce this quality product of Pantelleria, along with good organization and culture, then to successfully sell Pantelleria products on the global market, it also takes communication of the uniqueness of this product and its real value, including its defense of surrounding landscape and territory as well as its respect for biodiversity. Today, consumers want even more control of company’s actions instead of company’s controlling consumers.
This means that entrepreneurs must take into consideration consumer’s values and offer adequate communication. Globalization is not only an economic fact, it is a phenomenon that needs new forms of communication, which, in fact, new technological networks now consent with information on local cultures to be shared globally, or, to globalize what’s local. In this sense, globalization is both a source of threats as well as opportunities: if on the one hand there is the risk of uniformity of cultures, on the other, it increases the possibility of preserving and developing local cultures. Even in China, the Passito di Pantelleria has found its way among the many imports. Globalization is a new and potent marketing lever that has been widely exploited by two different Italian realities that have sanctioned the success of the territory and small-sized producers of high quality goods, with groups like Slow Food and the Cinque Terre Park.
A success that is based on the defense of typicality and the sustainability of productive processes, on the divulgation of agricultural traditions and enogastronomic methods oriented towards safeguarding biodiversity, on enogastronomic tourism as a source of wealth as well as an opening for local production. Even in Pantelleria the turning point came from knowing how to get things started: a series of entrepreneurial interventions (and not just by Donnafugata) for projects geared towards giving the highest definition possible of the quality of this magical territory, while also keeping in mind that, today, more than ever, successful projects are projects that are shared and which have not just fallen from up high. But in re-launching the economy of Pantelleria, one of the most beautiful and interesting pages of its story was written by Ermete Realacci and Antonio Cianciullo, in the book “Soft Economy”, and the foundation of Symbola, “the lobby for Italian quality”, which serves to promote and give visibility to networks that companies and institutions can create in order to join in economic competition and social cohesion that takes strength from the community and the territory. “At the beginning of the ‘90s all those who were able to, escaped from this corner of Liguria... now, at the beginning of the new century, the situation has been turned upside down: they are returning from the factories, and leaving their uniforms behind in order to return to the vineyards that can produce wines that go for 50 euros per bottle; the terraces are now worked with care; tourist season now lasts 10 months out of the year; laborers are now imported because there are no more unemployed; earnings are enough to buy the most advanced technologies”.
Is the result of the work of the park and its men. Testimonies collected by Giacomo, Josè and Antonio Rallo (Donnafugata) The work of Donnafugata, the company of “Ben Ryé” and “Thousand and One Nights”, on the island of Pantelleria Just a little over 20 years ago, Donnafugata was created in Sicily by a family that had always believed in the viticultural potential of its land and which had always looked to produce wines whose personality and organoleptic characteristics were strong expressions of the territory. From the hills of Contessa Entellina, Donnafugata landed on the island of Pantelleria in 1989, with a pioneering spirit and a clear strategic goal: redevelop and revisit the Passito di Pantelleria, in particular, the natural variety (without alcoholic additions). It was a wine that was still little known, and which, if produced at its maximum levels, would have represented the best response to the large and growing demand for natural sweet wines which had long appeared at the horizon. The choices for production techniques were inspired mostly by tradition like, for example, the drying of grapes on racks under the sun and wind of the island; but the productive cycle has also witnessed applications of modern technologies to the production of high quality white wines (the soft pressing of grapes, cryomaceration, and the control of temperatures during fermentation).
Donnafugata, in just a few years, and with the aid of Italian and French technicians, finalized a production model that has given exceptional results, from a quality and market success point of view: the Ben Ryé Passito di Pantelleria is the result. In the past 10 years, global earnings for the company have grown notably, and the earnings specifically for their sweet wine have grown even more. In 1997 earnings for Ben Ryé and Kabir represented only 4% of total global earnings, but, today, those earnings represent 19% of the company’s total income. These numbers give an idea of how much Donnafugata has gown in Pantelleria thanks to its correct reading of the unique valences of the territory. Ben Ryé (whose name is of Arabic origin and means “son of the wind”) is the fruit of an extreme island, that is of a volcanic nature and with a very particular microclimate (very little rain, beating winds, high temperatures in summer), but it is not for this reason that the wine is “excessive”.
Thanks to the choices made by man, it has a resulting sweetness, with its grand aromatic charge and its perfumes that are so complex and large that they melt into elegance. The Passito di Pantelleria is also the fruit of a synthesis between a unique territory and equally unique varietal: the Moscato d’Alessandria, or, Zibbibo. It is an ancient grape that takes its name from the Arabic term “zebibb”, which means “passed grapes” and which was brought to Pantelleria from the coast of North Africa precisely by the Arabs. This autochthonous grapevine is to be considered, without a doubt, one of the symbols of the identity of the island of Pantelleria, together with the dammuso and the caper. It has always been fact that the island’s economy has been levered by the cultivation of Zibibbo: a grape with great organoleptic qualities, a grape to dry for gastronomic uses, and prime material for natural wines. The Catasto Borbonico noted that this was the island’s principle cultivation even in 1823.