SOCIALLY COMMITTED WINE: IT WILL BE CALLED “CENTOPASSI”, THE NERO D’AVOLA PRODUCED BY COOPERATIVA PLACIDO RIZZOTTO, THE SICILIAN COOPERATIVE THAT CULTIVATES LAND CONFISCATED BY THE MAFIA

A new wine that, from the name on its label, to its vineyards, and its wine cellars will be a testament to the social commitment of those who produced it, and who have made legality their standard-bearer. The wine will be called “Centopassi” (inspired by the famous film by Marco Tullio Giordana about the life of Peppino Impastato who was murdered by the mafia), and is a Nero d’Avola produced by the Cooperativa Placido Rizzotto, which cultivates land that has been confiscated by the mafia. It will be the first wine produced entirely by goods that have been confiscated by the mafia, from the vineyards (that were long abandoned and have now been replanted) to the wine cellars.

The label on “Centopassi” was not designed by a famous graphic artists but by high school students at the Bodoni Technical Institute of Turin for graphic arts and photography, which, together with Nova Coop, the consumer cooperative that operates in Piedmont, have fine-tuned and completed this learning experience. “Even designing the label was an important initiative that involved not only the technical abilities of the children but also their social awareness”, explained Gianluca Faraone, the young president of the Cooperativa Placido Rizzotto. “Thanks to the attentive direction by Nova Coop, the students were actually able to meet and speak with the public prosecutor of Turin, Gian Carlo Caselli, and with Giovanni Impastato, the brother of Peppino Impastato. In February a delegation of students and teachers even went to Sicily, with stops at the Peppino Impastato memorial house in Cinisi, to the Portella della Ginestra Memorial, and to the House for Youth in Castelvetrano, where olive oil is produced on more land that was confiscated from organized criminals”.

In the meantime students have consigned their work, which will be on exhibition at an Ipercoop in Turin, and where Coop members will be able to vote for their favorite piece. An award ceremony will be held on March 20th at the Abele Group Association, in Corso Trapani 91/b, in Turin, and will be attended by, among others, Don Luigi Ciotti, Gian Carlo Caselli and Giovanni Impastato. Coop director, Carlo Barbieri, emphasized that “this is an important initiative that will contribute to the support of this cooperative that was created for and moves forward in the name of legality. We at the Coop have always believed in this, supporting it from both a commercial point of view by distributing “anti-mafia” products in our stores, as well as by promoting initiatives in Sicily and on the national territory”.

The technical help from the experts at Slow Foods, who supervised the entire production process (from the work in the vineyards to the final bottling), was also fundamental for the creation of “Centopassi”. The wine’s first production will be made with grapes from the 2006 harvest.

The Cooperativa Placido Rizzotto - Libera Terra (named after the Mayor of Corleone who was killed by the mafia) was created in 2001 and is composed of disadvantaged young men and women of the area. Its goal is to use what has been confiscated from the mafia. From the vineyards where wine is made (in 2004 the IGT white wine “Placido” debuted on the market), to the wheat fields, to the olive orchards that produce oil, and the fruit trees for jams and marmalades, all once belonged to Totò Riina. After it was confiscated, the area was left abandoned for many years.

And it was no other than the Coop to be the first to begin selling “Libera Terra” pasta a few years ago. “Since we began reworking this land”, concluded Gianluca Faraone, “ we realized that we were also destroying something that had long had its roots in this community: we demonstrated, in fact, that after the domination of the mafia, even this area could return to work under the state and in full legality”.