finished his work consulting for the IRVV in 2003. For more than a decade he had given direction to Sicily’s wine evolution at a time when it was ripe to grow. Andrea Franchetti, the owner of the Passopisciaro winery on Etna, once told me that Sicilians are passionate and creative by nature but quarrel constantly among themselves. They need outsiders to arbitrate and to provide a framework for moving forward. Tachis has been the Sicilian wine industry’s most important outsider. He helped to organize and channel Sicilian energy and creativity. Yet at the same time, Sicilian wine producers have to see beyond Tachis’s instruction. He directed them to use their raw materials so that the resulting wines would appeal to the global market’s palate. This was necessary for Sicilian wine to be accepted as something beyond vino da taglio and low-cost vino da pasto. Outside cosmetic winemaking, Nero d’Avola and Nerello Mascalese, Sicily’s two premier vine varieties, have very different appearance and flavor profiles than red Bordeaux or Napa Valley Bordeaux blends. Now that Sicilian wine producers have demonstrated their ability to make international-style wines, the next step is to transform the island’s raw materials into something more faithful to the uniqueness of the Sicilian climate, soil, and gene pool. The challenge for Sicilian wine producers is to successfully market these true Sicilian wines to the world.
THE DE BARTOLI YEARS AT THE IRVV
Diego Planeta’s term as president of the IRVV ended in 1992. In the following year, Marco De Bartoli became president. De Bartoli put more emphasis on the development of indigenous varieties and native wine styles. He advocated setting a maximum yield of one hundred quintals per hectare (8,919 pounds per acre) for all Sicilian wine as a means of controlling quantity and improving quality. He envisioned that much of Sicily’s bulk wine could someday graduate to being sold by the bottle as DOC wine. He advocated promotional activities that would help producers get their wines to market and that would improve the image of Sicilian wines. He criticized the region of Sicily for reducing its financial support of IRVV research activities. Nonetheless, the vinification research center at Virzi continued its operation and Tachis remained a consultant throughout the 1990s.
De Bartoli, however, was not as skilled as Planeta in managing interpersonal and political relationships. In a conference held on the island of Pantelleria in August of 1995, rather than directing debates, be became embroiled in them, in particular arguing with local producers over the extent to which the drying of Zibibbo grapes could diverge from the traditional sun-drying. A producer on the island himself, De Bartoli had his own practices to defend or advocate: a month later he was charged with the illegal adulteration of wines. His winery south of Marsala, including its entire inventory, was sequestered. In 1997 he finished his term as president of the IRVV, but the court action continued and his business nearly collapsed. In June 2000 he was absolved of all charges. To this day, the why and the who behind the accusations remain a mystery. It was emotionally difficult for De Bartoli to put this incident behind him. Planeta’s presidency of the IRVV is well recognized. There is very little written about De Bartoli’s presidency. People who were close to the controversy surrounding him either claim ignorance of the circumstances and people involved or do not want to tell what they know or suspect.
FAMILY WINERIES OF THE 1990S
From about 1995 to 2005, the stage was set for the rapid evolution of private Sicilian companies that offered quality bottled wine to the international market. Many Sicilians owned vineyards and consigned their production to cooperatives or merchants. The success of the Sicilian wine industry encouraged the sons and daughters of these Sicilians to start companies, vinify and bottle their own grapes, and commercialize the wine. These companies emerged with a family management model. They took their positions among a smaller number of wineries that were established during or before the 1980s. Examples of these are Alessandro di Camporeale, Barbera, Fondo Antico, Rizzuto-Guccione, Morgante, Valle dell’Acate, Di Prima, and Giuseppe Russo. All grew at different rates and in different ways during the heady boom days of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Firriato and Cusumano, established in the mid-1980s and mid-1960s respectively, are examples of large family companies that grew rapidly during the 1990s by relying on skillfully branded products. They buy in grapes as needed to expand their brands. Spadafora and Feudo Montoni, which evolved out of family estates, use only estate grapes, and their proprietors remain physically involved in all aspects of wine production and sale. Because family-owned-and-managed wineries tend to engage in longer-term planning than partnerships and publicly owned companies, their presence improves the stability and long-term growth of the Sicilian wine industry. With respect to wine companies, Sicilians rarely engage in business partnerships exemplified by COS and Feotto dello Jato. During this rapid growth period of the Sicilian quality wine industry, three family wineries emerged as the cornerstones: Planeta, Tasca d’Almerita, and Donnafugata.
PLANETA: SICILIAN METEOR
Diego Planeta’s entrepreneurial genius, combined with the experience he had gained as the president of Settesoli and the president of the IRVV, put him in the perfect position to create a private winery that represented the interests and engaged the talents of his family. His connections to Settesoli helped to make him aware of the latest technologies and business strategies. His presidency of the IRVV put him at the helm of an organization that had funded advanced but fundamental research in the fields of viticulture, enology, and marketing.
A half-hour drive from Settesoli, his family owned a fortified baglio (“farmhouse”) in a contrada called Ulmo. It had been a summer home where the family managed the harvesting of its wheat. In 1985, Planeta, with Scienza as his viticultural consultant, had vineyards planted there. Initially their grapes were conferred to Settesoli. The new plantings incorporated the most up-to-date viticultural technology available for producing high-quality-wine grapes. The Planeta vineyards thus became the research center for the future Planeta winery. Along with native varieties such as Nero d’Avola and Grecanico, Planeta had French varieties planted there.
The enologist Carlo Corino, on his arrival in Sicily in 1989, began working simultaneously for Planeta and Settesoli. In 1991 Planeta sent his nephew Alessio to work at the COS winery to prepare him to manage the family winery. In 1994 Alessio returned to the Planeta family winery project. The Planetas built a winery at Ulmo in 1995. Diego’s daughter, Francesca, then joined her cousin Alessio. While Alessio learned about vinification under the wing of Corino, Francesca focused on marketing and public relations. Alessio’s brother Santi joined the team at a later date, taking over the direction of Planeta in the Italian market. Six cousins now work at the winery in different capacities. Alessio, as winemaker and production director, appears to be the leader among them. But although Diego is not involved in day-to-day matters, his word is the final one.
Planeta’s first release, in 1995, was a 1994 barrel-fermented Chardonnay that immediately grabbed the attention of the media. The winery also became known for its Merlot. The Planeta winery quickly became the best expression of the innovation and internationalization that characterized the Sicilian premium wine industry in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Its rapid success, though deliberately and quietly planned for a decade, encouraged other Sicilian producers to believe that they could sell mid-to-high-priced international-style wines to the world market.
TASCA D’ALMERITA: SICILIAN CLASSICISM
From the 1960s, Tasca d’Almerita built itself up slowly and deliberately from a large, well-managed agrarian base. The agrarian skills and instincts of the presiding Tasca d’Almerita family members—Giuseppe at first, then his son Lucio during the 1980s and 1990s—combined with the marketing genius of the winery’s sole marketing and sales agent, Ignazio Miceli (who opened global markets for the wines from Regaleali during the thirty-four-year period from 1963 to 1997), ensured that the world took notice of Tasca d’Almerita. The oldest son of Lucio, Giuseppe, an agronomist by training, entered the business in 1988, accompanying Miceli on his visits to the United States. Giuseppe’s brother, Alberto, joined him alongside Lucio: in 2005, while Lucio remained president, Alberto became Tasca d’Almerita’s CEO and Giuseppe its vice-president. Though Corvo was the
