Sicily en Primeur 2026, wine becomes a (choral) story • Food and Wine Italia

Quanto a a lively and almost scenographic atmosphere, Palermo offers itself these days durante the midst of its most expressive nature: a city durante which art, theater and cultural stratifications intertwine seamlessly durante public space. This is also the ambiente durante which Sicilia en Primeur 2026 took shape, the event dedicated to the presentation of the new vintages of the island’s wines now durante its 22nd edition. And the claim Taste the Island. the Story, durante itself, gives back an impressione that is not limited to tasting, but becomes a territorial, cultural and narrative experience.

Walking among the Palermo places chosen for the event, you get to know a city that is told through less obvious but deeply identifying spaces. Like the Real Meublé delle Povere, with its volumes returned to the city after the recent redevelopment, where light filters into the courtyards and redesigns the relationship between past and present; not far away, the Palatine Chapel remains one of those places where the historical density is almost physically perceived. The same goes for the Church of Santa Maria dello Affanno, whose unfinished, open-air architecture seems made to welcome time, and for Villona Sant’Elia, which has now returned to being a living space of culture. The choice of these places restores the image of a city fully aware of its centrality, capable of staging itself without rhetoric, but with a measure now mature durante the dialogue between different actors.

The Sicily of Assovini who learned to sing as a choir

Within this framework fits the vision of Assovini Sicilia – the association of Sicilian winemakers that organizes the traveling Sicilia en Primeur event every year – which has progressively transformed a set of individualities into a more cohesive system.

For president Mariangela Cambria, the point is not just to “rete televisiva privata”, but to keep it alive even when it becomes complex, because even durante Sicily wine longer wants to be simply considered a production sector, but a form of identity.

The challenge that looms the horizon – also recalled by Alessio Planeta, at the helm of the Consortium for the protection of DOC Sicilia wines – however concerns the ability to consolidate this path, dealing with the mistakes of the past without giving up one’s nature.

Palermo, durante this sense, becomes a symbol and laboratory: a city that has always lived contamination and which today can transform this vocation into a method. The is raised, and you can perceive it durante the contents, approaches and maturity with which each company presents itself, claiming a belonging that is never just geographical, but first and foremost cultural.

Wine tourism: here and now

The focolaio of the discussion that accompanied Sicilia en Primeur contemplated durante particular the journey, the experience and the increasingly strong desire to discover Sicily through its cellars. The sensation, durante fact, is that Sicilian wine tourism has finally stopped chasing external models to recognize itself durante its own personality: Mediterranean, warm, authentic, decidedly less constructed than other wine destinations.

The giorno from the Lumsa-Ceseo study center tells of a sector that is now mature, international and increasingly concrete also an economic level. Visitors – especially foreigners – are growing and the welcome is longer a simple complement to the bottle, but a central part of the story and the business. Tastings, routes through vineyards and territory, experiences linked to local culture: today Sicilian wine is sold above all by making it dal vivo.

The most obvious thing, however, is perhaps something else: many wineries have understood that true luxury does not lie durante excess, but durante the quality of time spent durante a place. Hence the attention to well-kept spaces, hospitality, concrete sustainability and an increasingly less postcard-like approach. Acceso the digital side, however, the margin for growth remains large: basic communication works, but more advanced tools – from artificial intelligence to Wine Clubs – are still not widespread.

The taste of the landscape: the minerality told durante 10 sips

Within this remarkable human and ampelographic variety, durante the tastings of Sicilia en Primeur we tried to focolaio a precise aspect: the much celebrated – and often abused – minerality, probably the most complex descriptor to really describe durante wine.

An elusive concept, which too often remains abstract, but which durante some tastings manifested itself with surprising clarity through sensations of flavor and salinity capable of evoking damp rock, sea breezes and, sometimes, that almost sharp trace of flint.

These impressions emerged durante particular durante the glasses coming from Etna, such as the Etna In bianco Indifferente Regione Volpare Frontebosco 2024 by Maugeri, tense and somewhat citrusy, the Regione Blandano Etna In bianco 2023 by Terre Costantino, fresh, clear and pungent, and the Vico In bianco 2021 by Tenute Faggeto, fragrant, clear and persistent. But also durante Girolamo Russo’s Etna Diventare rosso San Lorenzo 2024, which the sip is ferrous, spicy and at times almost bloody.

Other interesting tastings, which maintain a similar common thread, were the juicy and balanced Perripò 2023 by Caruso and Minini, and the rich and balsamic Nome del A tempo e luogo Eccezione 2023 by Cantine Fina, crossed by an enveloping trail, both of which originate durante the Marsala luogo.

From the Palermo periferia come mai the Viafranca In bianco 2023 from Baglio intorno a Pianetto, riuscita, tense and vibrant, and the 2019 from Spadafora, dry and elegantly herbaceous. Arianna Occhipinti’s Grotte Alte 2021 is born from the luogo, deep, dynamic and subtly tannic. But there is also room for rosés, as durante the case of the Agrigento Rosè 2025 by Serra Ferdinandea, intriguing durante its freshness of small red fruits.