Etna Days represents one of the most important event hold by Consorzio Tutela Vini Etna Doc and dedicated to both Italian and foreign international Media & Press.
Organized as a real sensorial journey, it took place from 12 to 14 September by opening its doors to one hundred and twenty producers having met with about fifty wine experts including journalists, from Italy, North America and Europe, all together came to discover the wines and vines of that volcanic terroir.
The program was abundant and made up of different tastings, Masterclasses and visits to the cellars.
Began on Thursday 12th September for the 9 o’clock rush with such interesting speech titled “From Etna to the Italian vineyard. The future of wine on international markets”. Preliminary intro was on the hands of the President of Consortium Francesco Cambria, where the debate – moderated by the director Maurizio Lunetta – saw the participation of Luigi Moio, president of the International Organization of Vine and Wine OIV, Carlo Flamini, head of the Observatory of Unione Italiana Vini and Bertrand Gauvrit, director of the Association des Climats du vignoble de Bourgogne.
Etna today represents a well performing district and look ahead to the near future by focusing on quality standard, new young and emergent generations involved in the field and great success among the main foreign markets.
The President Cambria highlighted how sales performance are currently holding up thank to a Premium and Super Premium target as brand positioning joint to the decision to keep production limited. Towards this direction not just innovations but the desire to forward-thinking on the guarantee of quality process with the DOCG to be achieved within next two or three years latest!
Last but not least, a spotlight on how wine business is developing economy basically thank to collaborations among all business firms involved in the industry and institutions. This certainly pushes young people to stay and invest further in the area.
According to the study titled “If you take away wine from Italy. A dip in the half empty glass”, carried out on the occasion of the last Vinitaly by the Uiv-Vinitaly Observatory and Prometeia, the contribution of the Sicilian DOC on the territory is worth up to 10 times more than the value of the wine (ex-cellar) which means that each bottle produced and consumed on site is generating inducing a impact on the territory equal 82 euros.
Afterwards Carlo Flamini shared a cross-section of Etna wine in some foreign markets with a focus on the US: in spite of the average statistics which see Italian denominations loosing 10% in value, Etna still maintains the positive sign instead.
Conference ended also by drawing a parallel between Etna and Burgundy, trying to understand differences and similarities each other to follow with the tech tasting over 500 Etna Doc labels during the walk around tasting in the afternoon with participants producers.
Friday 13th and Saturday 14th, was reserved to the journalists tours which were divided into groups for guided tours to the estates selected according to different slopes and districts.
Our choice at Massimo Lentsch was to postpone that last part of the program and postpone it to the next edition due to the imminent completing of the new cellar… the first bio-energetic cellar of Etna!
