Sustainability, the “Robert Parker Green Emblem Award” to San Salvatore 1988 and Petrolo

San Salvatore 1988, a pioneering winery of wine (but not only) and sustainability in Paestum, Campania, born from the dream of Giuseppe Pagano, “Peppino” to everyone, who sensed the potential of a land where, as in few others, quality agriculture can be linked to incomparable beauty and history, and Petrolo, Tuscany’s wine gem, led by Luca Sanjust and flagship of that Doc Valdarno di Sopra, which, for years, has been de facto all organic, and has long aspired to officially become Italy’s first all “organic” appellation by specification: these are the two Italian wineries that, at this tail end of 2023, join the 50 wineries around the world honored, over the years, with “The Wine Advocate’s” Robert Parker Green Emblem Award, which this year has 11 new entries, including the two Italian wineries, and “the Italian” Bodega Chacra, a winery created in Patagonia, Argentina, by Italy’s Piero Incisa della Rocchetta (grandson of Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, creator of Sassicaia, ed.), along with Domaine Guillemot-Michel and Château Mangot from France, Weingut Clemens Busch, and Frank John from Germany, Filipa Pato from Portugal, Pingus from Spain, Emiliana, the world’s largest biodynamic winery, from Chile, and Yangarra Estate Vineyard, in Australia. With San Salvatore 1988 and Petrolo thus joining the other Italian wineries honored in previous years, namely Alois Lageder in Alto Adige, Tasca d’Almerita and Arianna Occhipinti in Sicily, Avignonesi and Salcheto in Montepulciano, Tuscany, and E.Pira e Figli - Chiara Boschis in Piedmont.
“We have added two more awarded wineries and we are now at 8, the number growing and that is a positive thing. The 2023 awards”, Monica Larner comments, to WineNews, “in addition to the companies, San Salvatore 1988 and Petrolo, are above all awards to two people, Peppino Pagano and Luca Sanjust, who are two ambassadors of their territories, Cilento and Valdarno, and of sustainability. And who also look at the evolution of a concept of sustainability that goes beyond biodynamic or organic in the vineyard, but towards the social. An award to two strong people who do a lot of work while also looking at the impact on the social fabric of their territories”.
“It is not surprising to see solar panels and biogas plants around Tenuta San Salvatore 1988. Giuseppe Pagano, affectionately called “Peppino”, and his team have succeeded in becoming self-sufficient through renewable energy”, writes Monica Larner, about the Capaccio-Paestum-based company, “and we are proud to present the Green Emblem to Peppino Pagano of San Salvatore 1988, which represents an inspiring model of sustainability that can be applied to people of all ages in the Cilento region who seek a better and more prosperous future”. “It is a great pride to be awarded this recognition”, says Giuseppe Pagano, patron of the San Salvatore 1988 winery, “which represents a very important point of arrival for us, crowning a tireless business journey. We love our territory and our business reality lives in a permanent osmosis with our land and its talents. It is therefore part of our genetic heritage to protect what surrounds us, which is made up of culture, history, beauty and all that is found in our bottles. That is why protecting our ecosystem means protecting our own winery and being faithful to what are the founding values of our winery. San Salvatore 1988 wants to be primarily a way of life and wants to testify to a way of being and doing business in which the green soul is an indispensable priority. The Robert Parker Green Emblem fills us with pride and is for all these reasons also a starting point. We will continue along this path, we will always and forever follow this trail with ever more ambitious goals in terms of sustainability. The recognition charges us with responsibility. Because it is within the very logic of this tribute to become witnesses to a process of awareness”, Pagano explains, “that must invest our territory, the other wineries, the operators all. It is clear that improving the overall sustainability of a wine-growing area means improving the overall living standards of a community. From today we will be increasingly committed to this front”.
The motivations for the award to Petrolo, and to Luca Sanjust, on the other hand, include “what will be the first certified organic wine appellation in Europe? The race is on, and one of the main contenders is Valdarno di Sopra Doc, in Tuscany. This award recognizes the hard work and forward-thinking approach of a wine region located in a lovely triangle of Tuscany, equidistant from Florence, Arezzo and Siena. In particular, it goes to a passionate winemaker with the enthusiasm and vision to create a certified organic wine region recognized by both the Italian Ministry of Agriculture and the European Parliament. And that man is Luca Sanjust di Petrolo”. And, as with San Salvatore 1988, the comment of the award to Petrolo, entrusted to the Consorzio della Doc Valdarno di Sopra, of which Luca Sanjust himself is president, also goes in the vision of the growth of the territory: “we are proud and grateful that “Robert Parker The Wine Advocate” wanted to give the Green Emblem award to Luca Sanjust and his winery Petrolo, certainly for his activity as a producer but mainly for the policies and initiatives within the Consorzio Valdarno di Sopra, of which he is president, aimed at affirming an organic and sustainable territory, also recognized at the regulatory level. A project where attention to the environment, innovation and quality are collective tools of productive and territorial growth”.