Assovini Sicilia promotes the island as a wine destination of excellence
Assovini Sicilia promotes the island as a wine destination of excellence


Assovini Sicilia promotes the island as a wine destination of excellence

Assovini Sicilia promotes the island as a wine destination of excellence

Taormina and Radicepura hosted the 19th edition of Sicilia

Laurent Bernard de la Gatinais, president of Assovini Sicilia : “Sicily has all the credentials to become a wine destination of excellence, by virtue of the variety and quality of the wine, a unique historical-archaeological heritage. The cultural value of wine fascinates and attracts more and more and becomes a symbol of Made in Sicily excellence”.

The members of Assovini Sicilia bet more and more on wine tourism and successfully contribute to driving the Sicily brand by enhancing their territory.
According to the survey addressed to members, 90% of companies have a structure intended for wine tourism for tasting in the cellar. 32% of these own an accommodation facility with beds and 30% offer a restaurant proposal. The services offered by the Assovini wineries are increasingly refined and diversified, turning into wine experiences: over 51% offer from cooking classes to wellness itineraries, from wine trekking to tours that interact more and more with the landscape and culture of the places. These are the data released during the conference Sicilia: Top Wine, Film, Tourism Destination at the end of Sicilia en Primeur , the international showcase of Sicilian wine created by Assovini Sicilia.
The wine association underlined the vocation and role of ambassadors and guardians of culture and territory of the associated companies and traced the path of the future Sicilian wine, increasingly in the sign of wine tourism as a wine experience .
The speech by Laurent de la Gatinais , president of Assovini Sicilia, opened the Sicilia en Primeur conference in the splendid setting of the Radicepura botanical park, at the foot of Etna, where the Mediterranean Landscape Biennial was inaugurated in recent days.
By combining the successful marketing strategies of hospitality adopted in California, with the uniqueness, the richness of Sicily's historical, cultural and archaeological heritage and the authenticity of Sicilian places and producers, Sicily has all the credentials to become a wine destination of excellence, the Sicily Valley of the Mediterranean”.
Wine tourism proves to be an economic and strategic factor in Sicily thanks to the ability of the cellars to be an ideal cultural container in which to combine art, history, nature, gastronomic culture, territory, genius loci and the ability of companies in having been able to promptly intercept developing this potential with competence and professionalism - comments the president of Assovini Sicilia.
The wine tourism of our associated companies combines the centrality of wine as a tasting experience with a diversified and quality offer, from simple tasting to more complex experiences in the vineyard such as concerts, a reading or an artistic journey through the vineyards.
With the wine experience we want to transfer the emotions from the vineyard to the wine up to the final consumer, through the personal experience and history of the producers. And we want to do it in a unique setting: that of the territory, the cellar, the wine. A holistic vision where the cultural value that wine possesses, represented by a unique mix of product, terroir and people, fascinates and attracts more and more and becomes a symbol of Made in Sicily excellence. Assovini Sicilia intends to enhance the wine tourism of our associates as a strategy to promote the diversity and quality of the Sicilian territories, their gastronomic richness and culture, the landscape-cultural heritage” - concludes de la Gatinais.
Aware of the growing trend of Sicilian wine tourism, the members of Assovini Sicilia have bet on the combination of tourism and wine and successfully contribute to driving the Sicily brand by enhancing their territory. Competence, determination and professionalism, together with marketing, planning and communication strategies, have led the companies of Assovini Sicilia to invest more and more in wine tourism. An accomplice to this success is also the role of the Next Generation, the new generation of Sicilian viticulture which is preparing for the generational change. Many of the young people under 40 are involved in hospitality with the aim of diversifying the wine tourism offer, transforming it into a wine experience.

Roberta Garibaldi , professor at the University of Bergamo and president of the Italian Food and Wine Tourism Association, in her speech on Food and Wine Tourism Trends and Trends highlighted that “ Sicily confirms its primacy as the best food and wine destination for Italian tourists thanks to the fascination exercised by food & wine. Wine tourism is one of the strengths of the offer, and in the future it will be called to evolve and enrich itself . Looking at the wishes of Italians who intend to make a food and wine trip to Sicily - continues Roberta Garibaldi - the desire to experience open spaces and immerse yourself in rurality is strong, the tastings at sunset excel (indicated by 66%), dinners in the vineyard ( 60%), tourist harvest (46%), wine trekking (42%) passing through the new trend of foraging (46%). The key word is to diversify, but based on the target, without forgetting ad hoc proposals for families with children ”.
Professor Benedetto Puglisi , co-founder and scientific director of the Master THEM in Tourism Hospitality & Event Management of BeAcademy spoke about tourism wine destination.
“Wine destinations are not just a tourist product but a model of sustainable territorial development - comments Benedetto Puglisi. Interest in this sector has grown tremendously in recent years. In this context, Sicily has brought out excellence and great potential for development. The territorial characteristics of the island, the variety of vineyards and cellars and its important tourist, cultural and environmental heritage are the mix of elements at the basis of a successful tourism wine destination".
In diversifying the offer, today wine tourism also meets the demands of the luxury segment.
The evolution of tourism for us too is therefore increasingly experiential, underlines Lorenzo Maraviglia - General Manager of the San Domenico Palace, a Four Seasons Hotel - in his speech during the Sicily: Top Wine, Film, Tourism Destination conference.
Food and wine accompanies every guest's journey, cellar tours are among the most requested experiences. Our guests are fascinated by family management but above all they consider it important that behind any experience there is a story.
Spotlights also focused on the role of Sicilian viticulture and the quality of the 2022 vintage.
“ The 2022 vintage was one of the most heterogeneous in recent years, qualitatively very rich and diversified, as can be seen from the elegance, phenolic maturity and fragrance of the wines produced. The Sicilian viticultural territories, extremely different in terms of orographic, ampelographic and microclimatic peculiarities, have experienced a good productive year, on average in recent years, with an increase in the richness of the different qualitative expressions for the different varieties" - comments Mattia Filippi, oenologist and founder of Uva Sapiens.
Antonio Rallo, president of the Consorzio di Tutela Vini Doc Sicilia , traces the history of the Consorzio DOC Sicilia since 2012, the year of its foundation, underlining that "The richness of the island is given by an enviable climate but also by a territory which presents more of 70 native varieties and 42,000 hectares of sustainable viticulture. Among our priority commitments is that of dedicating ourselves to the conservation of biodiversity generated by the 3,000 years of viticulture on the island”.
Sustainability in the future of Assovini Sicilia companies thanks to the SOStain Sicilia Foundation , born in 2020 from the will of Assovini Sicilia and the Consortium for the protection of DOC Sicilia wines. President Alberto Tasca recounted the new research projects that the SOStain Sicily Foundation - which currently has 39 associated wineries and more than 20 million certified bottles - has developed in the area with the aim of spreading the culture of sustainability in the Sicilian wine sector. .
The traveling event created by Assovini Sicilia , this year has chosen the beauty of the places of Taormina and Radicepura to present the wines of the latest harvest to the press and take stock of the growth of wine tourism with the conference Sicilia: Top Wine , Film, Tourism Destination, moderated by the journalist Nino Amadore, correspondent of the newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore .
Over one hundred accredited national and international journalists, nine wine tours, eight hundred wines for tasting, sixty wineries, five masterclasses, successfully closed the nineteenth edition of Sicilia en Primeur.
Sicilia en Primeur is not only an important appointment for the Sicilian wine sector but also an opportunity to promote the Sicilian wine and historical-archaeological heritage through the wine tours that hosted the national and foreign press, reiterating that in Sicily the combination of wine and culture it's always more successful.
A total of five masterclasses conducted by journalists and authors Fabio Rizzari and Giampolo Gravina ("Question of style/Icons of Sicilian wine: 11 labels that have made history"; "Etna according to Assovini Sicily, slopes, districts and styles"; "Declinations of light: 12 Sicilian wines you don't expect) and by the Master of Wine Elizabeth Gabay
(Sparkling and fizzy wines. The new Sicilian frontier”; “Sicilia en Rosé”).

Assovini Sicilia is an association that brings together 100 small, medium or large Sicilian wineries, which mainly share three elements: total control of the winemaking chain, from the vineyard to the bottle; the production of quality bottled wine; the international vision of the market, sustainability.

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