Wine, Italian excellence that tells stories of redemption. Honored by Premier Giuseppe Conte

Stories of redemption, with wine that becomes an ambassador of new life for those who through its production and viticulture succeeds in getting out of the drama of drugs, or restores life and dignity to the territories and lands confiscated from the mafia, and those who cultivate them, or simply becomes the keystone for those who want to change life, or is support for the help of others, expressing, beyond its quality, its true cultural value, ethical tension, passionate and philosophical and moral, which binds “La Vite Alla Vita”.
Thoughts, messages, and emotions, arising from the International Forum of Wine Culture n. 12, signed by the Fondazione Italiana Sommelier (FIS), where the stories of redemption and rebirth through wine, told by realities such as San Patrignano, or Centopassi ( Libera Terra ), or even by the Children’s Hospital Bambino Gesù, which toasts his 150 years, amplified by the President of the Council and “Sommelier ad honorem”, Giuseppe Conte: “Thank you to all those who are involved in this great adventure that is the culture of wine, the Prime Minister - said Premier Conte - can only be honored to point out how Italy in the culture and production of wine expresses a world excellence, which increases our prestige. I understood it as a citizen, and now even more so as a Premier: with peaks of excellence, like wine, it is the whole country that acquires its reputation. Thanks to the winemakers, to the sommeliers who enhance the culture of wine. On which we have world leadership positions. Also thanks to the culture of wine, which is many things: it is knowledge because there is not only business and production, sacrifice and business risks, investment, and work. In wine there is the transmission of knowledge, theoretical elaboration, daily practices, cultural identity, territory, openness to innovation, research, technology, there is the myth of the classical mythology of the bond with the fertile and stepmother land, there is an open look to the future”.
A wine culture that, as Franco Ricci, patron of FIS and Bibenda, reminded us, has been trying for years to get it into school curricula, “because it deserves it, just like the great cultures of the Italian arts, because it enhances our history, diversity, and richness of Italian wine”.
“As a government we can work on this - replied Conte - because in schools we can contribute to nurturing this culture, encouraging moderation in consumption. And then we must support the export of our companies, work with the Embassies, Sace, all the structures that are available to all our companies, especially for SMEs, which must be to support advice, from the financial and insurance point of view. I gladly accept the title of Honorary Sommelier, since I learn something about wine every day, thanks to fragments of knowledge that my friend and sommelier of Palazzo Chigi, Alessandro Scorsone, gives me”.
The excellence of Conte’s wine is praised, as well as its cultural value and redemption, which also ends up in the bottle, with the wine “Vita”, produced in 6,000 bottles, which will be sold in the Enoteca that will find room for the Bambino Gesù, signed by Riccardo Cotarella, and the “embrace” in a blend of wines from the Cotarella family, the Chianti Classico Vallepicciola winery and the Cantina Due Palme.
The wine that has become the key to the redemption of many experiences, which were told by the protagonists introduced from time to time by Fede & Tinto, the historic duo at the helm of Decanter, on Radio2.
Like the one in Centopassi - Libera Terra, told by the president Giovanni Ascione: “We cultivate 65 hectares of vineyards in the Upper Belice Valley. Patrimony definitively confiscated from the mafias, part of the 1,300 hectares of land between Sicily, Campania, Puglia and Calabria managed by Libera Terra. We cultivate difficult vineyards, far from each other, sometimes planted by us, or already planted by the mafia, with our historic vines, Perricone, Catarrato, Grillo, Nero d’Avola, in vineyards from 400 to 1,000 meters, including Vigna Portella della Ginestra, close to the site of the massacre of May 1, 1947, a beautiful stone facing north that sees the sea of the Gulf of Castellammare, planted with sapling. We produce 500,000 bottles, critics and the market appreciate us, even abroad. The redemption that we are telling is that of lands that for too long have been humiliated by disgusting people, reborn to new life, which show that a virtuous model is possible, with professionalism, and serious and hard work. Being considered a model gives us joy and strength to move forward”.
And a model of redemption through wine San Patrignano, the community founded by Vincenzo Muccioli, which has helped 26,000 young people from Italy and the world to come off drugs. “At first there were few vineyards, but then they grew together with the community. It has become a real entrepreneurial activity - said the agronomist Roberto Dragoni - which meets the rules of the market and quality, and also brings sustenance to the community, which is a non-profit organization and, free of charge, welcomes, cares for and trains young people. Today, 70 of them are involved in vineyard, production, and sales. Also thanks to FIS, we offer professionalism in the world of wine, which through the time of the vineyard, the care that is needed, becomes a way of recovery and reintegration into the world of our guys, and among the many activities that we do is the one that best achieves the goal. Behind the ransom, there is dignity, acceptance of oneself as humans among humans, with effort and work. And a special thanks to Riccardo Cotarella, without whom we will not be who we are”.
Wine becomes an instrument of redemption, more than 100 winemakers, from all over Italy have joined “Wine For Life”, the project of the Community of Sant’Egidio, which through the funds donated to the origin, for each bottle “marked” by the project, has put in place one of the most important AIDS care projects in Africa, and not only, recalled Mario Marazzitti. At other times, wine fascinates, and becomes a passion that makes you change your life, as done by Paolo and Antonella Presciutti, who work in the economic sector, have returned to the land of their grandparents, in Umbria, giving birth to the winery Bevante, or as Cinzia Merli, at the helm of Le Macchiole, today one of Bolgheri’s reference cellars, founded together with her husband Eugenio Campolmi, who died prematurely, with the adventure in wine that has become a path made of rebirth from difficulties, of rediscovery of his personality, and a symbol of the courage to relaunch and restart after a family tragedy.
Or, it could be “a crazy challenge - jokes Bruno Vespa, n. 1 of the Italian journalists, but more and more wine producer with Vespa Vignaioli in Puglia - I have always been passionate about wine, I have been writing about it for 40 years. Then there was this turning point, which began with this investment in Puglia. And today wine is a constant, daily thought for me, I can’t say that it’s the first job, but almost: a few hours or minutes, every day, I take care of the company every day”.
Stories that Italian wine can tell and embody, pieces of that mosaic so fascinating that is the “culture of wine”.