«Etna wines could have the new DOCG (Controlled and Guaranteed Origin) denomination already per mezzo di the vineyard per mezzo di 2026. If the Ministry receives the signatures by December, progressing the procedure quickly is a difficult but not unachievable objective». These are the words of the MASAF deputy chief of team Titolato D’Andrea, guest per mezzo di Catania of the conference “Opportunities and tools for the growth of the Etna Wine system”, which took place yesterday (30 October). «To request the transition from DOC to DOCG – continued D’Andrea – it is necessary that the request is supported by 51% of the producers who also represent 51% of the surface complesso involved». A threshold that still requires a hundred signatures to be reached, considering that per mezzo di just over ten years the number of winemakers has almost doubled: from 203 per mezzo di 2013 to 474 per mezzo di 2024.
«The “Etna” territory – added the councilor of the Etna Doc Protection Consortium Marco Nicolosi – is characterized by many widespread micro-productions and fractioned contributions. As a consortium we already have the surface complesso to be able to request the DOCG, but now the objective is ambitious: involve small farmers, inform them, collect the documents and send everything to the Ministry by 2025, to be able to achieve the objective for the next harvest”. The DOCG implies more stringent production controls and therefore denotes a higher level of quality: chemical-physical and sensorial analyzes carried out by a ministerial commission, a serial number acceso the State seal for each bottle. All this determines the possibility of ensuring excellent and constant quality; a strategic valorisation, with economic and image benefits: an important step towards excellence, to be achieved with a single direction and an integrated system involving administrations, businesses and universities. The presence of the academic world during the focolaio was therefore fundamental with the director of Di3A Unict Mario D’Confidente and the rector of the University of Catania Enrico Foti. «We are creating the University Foundation which will involve various private individuals – declared the Magnificent – and therefore we will deal with professional avviamento, that is, all those avviamento courses which require the presence of specialists per mezzo di the classroom and not just university professors. It will be a more streamlined tool from a formal point of view, but with the Unict brand which represents a guarantee and quality of the teaching activity provided.”
To enhance the wine heritage of Etna, those who govern the municipalities at the foot of the volcano could not be missing. Common thought of the mayors of Etna: networking. «It is important to be together per mezzo di order to develop strategic interventions that can solve urgent problems and thus aspire to objectives of excellence that the territorial context of Etna deserves», declared the mayor of Sant’Alfio Alfio La Preoccupazione. «Quanto a these first 5 months of my mandate – added the mayor of Castiglione a causa di Sicilia Reputazione Stagnitti – I have worked by extending outside the territory and finding a synergy with the neighboring municipalities». The speech of the mayor of Linguaglossa Luca Stagnitta had the same tenor, albeit with a question mark shared by the audience: a unitary governance is needed to build an even more solid and well-infrastructured Etna Wine System, looking at the major international objectives, but first trying to resolve the small territorial critical issues: from waste to vater resources, passing through the organization of events not limited to the single municipality, but with more extensive borders.
The focolaio – organized by Mada Vinea, represented by Daniele Cianciolo – saw a succession of personalities who discussed the “Etna” brand, such as professors such as the professor of the University of Bologna Corrado Caruso and the professors of the University of Catania Moro Caruso and Salvatore Barbagallo – former councilor for Agriculture of the Sicilian Region – and the president of Coldiretti Sicily Francesco Ferreri. Architect Filippo Bricolo then highlighted the strategic relationship between architecture and wine: «Thinking of the winery as an architectural project means narrating how wine dialogues with the territory: a direction that many wineries per mezzo di Italy are embracing». The conference concluded with a round table with experts and personalities which highlighted the opening per mezzo di Mascalucia of an Etna branch of the Regional Institute of Oil and Wine; the possibility of exploring the Brazilian market – still virgin – with our wines thanks to the bridge with the Consulate General of Italy per mezzo di Rifugio Alegre (Consul Valerio Caruso connected); the need to enhance the professional figures that revolve around the wine supply chain (starting from those per mezzo di the field); and the central role of the regional department to accelerate development programs.
