The national committee for the recognition of DOC wines (denominazione di origine controllata) from the Department of Food and Agriculture in Rome approved the institution of DOC Sicilia.

  
The label IGT (indicazione geografica tipica) was also modified at this meeting to IGT Terre Siciliane (IGT Sicilian soil).  This is a crowning achievement in the long battle for the acknowledgement of Sicily’s viticulture and a fundamental element for the politics of the region’s vineyards.  After over twenty years, the widespread and thorough task to distinguish Sicilian wines and viniculture has finally been achieved. 

The Regional Office of Agricultural Policies, IRVV (Istituto Regionale della Vite e del Vino -Regional Institute for vines and wine), the trade unions, the cooperatives and a majority of their employees all played a major role in removing the label that originally associated and compared Sicilian wines to other (also prestigious) Italian and European wines.  They have helped to relieve Sicilian wines of their status of inferiority, which for a long time was perpetuated by the island’s winegrowers themselves.  The committee received a round of applause from the regional representatives for their decision and approval. 

Enological production and quality have progressed and improved over the past twenty years, allowing the addition of new DOC territories to the preexisting 12, bringing the new total to 21 (Cerasuolo di Vittoria – becoming a  DOCG).

 
Although the volume of product sold and demanded is relatively low, the improvement in the system of certified quality and acknowledgement in the market is extremely vital to the island’s wines.  This change will help domesticate and familiarize the wine companies on the market by making the packaged product easily identifiable.  It will also help the companies get accustomed to the system and regulations of certified quality and the importance of the demand of the product’s and territory’s identity that confirms the wine’s origins and characteristics.

In 1991, 93% of the island’s product, mainly consisting of two or more wines mixed, was directed towards the unpackaged market or sent for distillation.  If today 15% of the wine reaches the market as a product packaged in Sicily and another 35% as a product identifiably originating in Sicily, then the region has made much advancement.  This attests to the degree of quality and improvement in Sicilian wines.  In a market that is saturated by networks from North and Central Italy, crowded with old-world wines (France, Portugal, Hungary and Spain) and new world wines (Australia, California, South Africa and Chile) Sicily is now an actor on the International scene.  But if all this was true, why do we need a DOC Sicilia?

 
The truth is that the markets are not stagnant and the competitive context in which we operated twenty years ago has changed drastically.  Globalization has widened our borders on all continents: everyone competes in all markets, especially in wine.  Wine is the only food product, aside from necessities like grain or rice that represents excellence; it is the messenger that represents its territory locally and globally.

 
For 10 thousand years, since man practiced agriculture, man and vines have been synonymous and inseparable.  As history continues, the anthropological definition of the terms and western culture has developed the culture of the market to that which we know today.

 
The identity of the product (Denominazione d’Origine) and its certification are the identity card or the passport to travel in the modern, global market.  To compare it to international state regulations known today, the DOC certification of a product is its birth certificate and the description of its characteristics, a statement of its existence in the market.

 
To take advantage of the notable opportunities brought along by globalization and uniformity, the criteria and parameters imposed to evaluate the concept of quality, one must be able to maintain the pace in the fast moving and often changing market.

 
There are new markets and new consumers.  Large populations in emerging countries, different types of consumers, often young, and traditional wine consumption all indicate that, all in all wine consumption in the world has increased.