More than 250 wine companies divided by 17 territories but united by a coordinated strategy. This is how Sicily will arrive at the 44th edition of Vinitaly, one of the most important events in the world concerning wine and which will take place from the 8th to the 12th of April in Verona. Numbers are growing, despite the costs that the companies have to pay that amount to 1.2 million Euros. “We will be present with one coordinated programme”, said Titti Bufardeci, regional councillor for farming resources, “following the guidelines dictated by the steering committee for promotional and communication interventions, that point to a rationalization of investments and a total qualification of the Sicilian identity, which was declined for its top-quality products”.

There will be a close partnership between the regional department and the regional institute for vines and wines (Irvv), which has always dealt with the presence of companies at VeronaFiere. “This year stalls have a logical path, a trip amongst Sicilian wines, a concrete representation, a real map of the areas dedicated to the production of wine”, explained the President of the Irvv, Leonardo Agueci, who has just come back from the Prowein in Dusseldorf.

The seventeen paths are included in two macro areas, western and eastern Sicily. So the journey starts from Pantelleria and continues towards Marsala, Segesta, Erice and Monreale. It goes through the province of Agrigento with the Valley of the Temples, and continues through the Terre Sicane, the Contea Sclafani and the inner part of Sicily with the Castelli Nisseni and Piazza Armerina. Finally you arrive in the province of Messina with the territories of Faro, Mamertino and the Aeolian islands, to continue to Mount Etna and finally the south eastern part of Sicily with Vittoria, Syracuse and the Val di Noto.

But not only. “There will be meetings with the buyers, within the initiative Taste&buy, to allow companies to meet new contacts and so improve their business”, continues Agueci, “moreover we decided to personalize the meeting following the marketing aims of each company”.

Dario Cartabellotta, director of the institute vine and wine, called the stall “Sicily in miniature”. “Our aim is to allow those people who have visited Sicily or are looking for a place which they have heard about, to find it and connect it easily to the wine produced in that area, because Sicilian wines are drunk to be remembered, not forgotten”, he underlined.

At the Vinitaly there will also be wine and food paths and tourism promotion that connects Sicilian wines to the fruition of the territory, amongst which “Il circuito di Bacco-Il Mito nei luoghi del vino”, organized by the regional department for Tourism and the Movimento Turismo del Vino and the association Amici dello Spettacolo.

Translated by Chiara Nunnari from John Milton Institute