“WINE FOR LEGALITY” - A NEW WINE PRESENTED IN GENOA AT SLOW FISH (4-7 MAY) WITH A SLOW FOOD TASTING: CENTOPASSI PRODUCED FROM VINEYARDS CONFISCATED FROM THE MAFIA IN SICILY. NOW ON SALE EXCLUSIVELY AT COOP SUPERMARKETS

Centopassi has made its debut. It is the wine that has been strongly advocated by priest Don Ciotti and produced by the Cooperativa Placido Rizzotto – Libera Terra (a cooperative created to manage the lands that the State has confiscated from the mafia in Sicily), and distributed exclusively by COOP supermarkets. The “baptism” took place at Slow Fish (4-7 May, in Genoa) during a tasting led by journalist Luigi Ciotti (editor of the Vini d’Italia Slow Food-Gambero Rosso wine guides). More specifically, they are a group of wines that, in every detail, from the name of the label to the vineyards and the wineries where they are made, are a testimony to the civil efforts for legality and against the mafia. It is the first wine that has been produced entirely from lands and goods confiscated from the mafia, vineyards that have now been replanted after years of abandon.
The Centopassi label has been released with two wines, plus a limited series that was insisted on by Don Ciotti to in recognition of the work by the students at the Bodoni Graphic Arts Institute in Turin who have done all of the graphic work (the label was chosen in a competition of their works held through the COOP), and they also chose the name Centopassi (which is the title of a film by Marco Tullio Giordana, screenplay by journalist Claudio Fava, recounting the story of Peppino Impastato).
The two wines have been entitled to Placido Rizzotto (the union representative of Corleone who was killed by the mafia): the white is a pure Catarratto, and the red is an equal blend of Nero d’Avola and Syrah (this wine will also be distributed in a limited series with a special label).

For the successful creation of Centopassi, there was also the fundamental technical help from Slow Food experts, who supervised over the entire production process, from the work in the vineyards to the final bottling, together with Sicilian enologist Salvatore Martinico (a consultant in several surrounding wineries), Giuseppe Caviola (Piedmontese enologist, consultant, and producer), and Federico Curtaz (agronomist).
The project began in 1995 in Corleone when Libera, the association run by Don Luigi Ciotti, began to collect signatures to solicit the approval of a law that would permit the social use of lands confiscated from the mafia. The initiative spread throughout Italy and the number of signatures reached one million. In 1996, Law 109 was approved, and since then, hundreds of hectares of land confiscated from organized criminals have been recuperated from a state of complete abandon and assigned a social cooperative that now produces wine, pasta, olive oil, tomato sauce, wheat, beans, fruits and vegetables.
The Cooperative Placido Rizzotto – Libera Terra was created in 2001 by a group of young Sicilians and currently runs 42 hectares of vineyards (that reach as high as 800 meters in altitude) that have been progressively replanted along with a new winery that is soon to be completed. A project that Don Ciotti has now extended to include other lands confiscated from criminals who have, unfortunately, impeded many areas of southern Italy from a chance at development and emancipation. The success of this organization has even been understood by some of these same organized criminals who, according to recent stories, have destroyed one of the cooperatives in Calabria, Valle del Marro, located in the Gioia Taura valley and created by the Libera association of Don Ciotti from lands that were confiscated from the “’ndrangheta”.