ENOLOGIST COTARELLA GIVES VOTE ON SICILY: “THE 2008 HARVEST IS ALMOST PERFECT” STEPS AHEAD FOR SICILY’S DOC WINES WITH AN AGREEMENT BETWEEN PLANETA AND LA VIA (SICILY REGION COUNCILOR): “DOC IS THE UMBRELLA UNDER WHICH DIVERSITY WILL BE VALORIZED”

Sicily’s 2008 harvest is “almost perfect”, “between four and five stars”, according to one of Italy’s most famous winemakers, Riccardo Cotarella, who made his calculations at the recent ‘Sicilia en Primeur’ expo organized by Assovini Sicilia, which is headed by Diego Planeta, one of the main artifices of the rebirth of Sicilian wine. “That half star that separates Sicilian viticulture from excellence” – explained Cotarella – “serves as a stimulus for the next harvest, which, I’m certain, will be marked with quality”.

An important argument during the 2009 edition of ‘Sicilia en Primeur’ was that of DOC wines. “We must find” – explained the regional councilor of agriculture La Via– “the element that can give us fame and notoriety on the market. For this reason we are talking about DOC Sicilia, with which we can also put our territory, our history, our traditions on the table. This is the added value that we must aim towards. DOC is the umbrella under which we can give value to diversity”.

Sicily is, in conclusion, a continent of wine in and of itself as Diego Planeta has already noted many times in interviews with WineNews: “The differences between terroir and products is our strength. We must always aim towards quality, a few but incisive initiatives. Sicily must be the reference point and the expression of the Mediterraneaness of the vine. And DOC will be an important tool for the growth of true Sicilian viticulture”.
Attilio Scienza, Professor of viticulture at the University of Milan agrees with Planeta: “In Sicily there is a curious contradiction because there is an idea that the island is united when, instead, it is a varied universe of viticulture and vines, a container of many things to be revealed and given value. It must be understood what the identity is of each territory, a fundamental step for quality. There is not really a profound awareness of the hydrogeological variety of Sicily, which, if compared to music, is a jazz with culture that comes from other countries, it has an originality that makes it unique”.



Focus – Riccardo Cotarella on the strengths of Sicilian wine

“Sicily is a unique reality because of the variety and multiplicity of its vineyards. It has no equals and it is fair that this peculiarity becomes known at an international level”, declared Riccardo Cotarella, one of the most admired and appreciated winemakers in Italy. “It is necessary to work on giving value and opportune communication from the various territories that are on the island. Speaking, in fact, simply of Sicily is reductive and a bland concept that does not do justice to the variety of the wine habitats that are present”.

Cotarella concluded that, “the new philosophy must no longer be that of identifying the wine with the varietal but rather with the micro-area in which it was produced, or rather, rediscovering the province that is behind it”. He made the comparison with France, “where the varietals are not indicated but the wine is identified with its territory”.