What Does the Future Hold for Wine in Sicily? A Sicilian Sojourn Pt. II

“You’ve got it all wrong, Alfonso,” a young influencer tells me. “You have to get yourself in front of the camera, show your face, strut your stuff!” Yeah, that might have been OK for me 30 or 40 years ago, but now? I don’t think so.

That was part of a conversation regarding one’s place in the world of wine and how to explode one’s brand online, as recommended by someone who is very successful at it. They also happen to be young, good-looking and affluent. None of which I purport to be, ever again.

But it does raise a question. And that is: How does one’s perception of something, and in this case, Italian wine, contribute to the larger conversation going on all over the world? Admittedly, that is a finely ground subject encompassing not that many people on this planet. But for those who it does interest (and affect) the future of Italian wine, and how we communicate that to a greater audience, is an important subject. Drill down to wine in Sicily and it gets even more granular.

And that is where I found myself early this autumn in Sicily, asking myself, “ What does the future hold for wine in Sicily?”

It’s pretty easy to get an idea when one is on Etna. You’re in the thick of it – wine country. It’s an epicenter. But in Palermo, where there is a larger mix of social and cultural forces pulling on oneself, wine doesn’t take center stage. Which, in the greater world, is pretty much how it is. And with worldwide consumption of alcohol trending downwards, it’s been losing share going into that uncertain future. 

What is it now? Is it a beverage to accompany food and conviviality? It is an escape hatch for folks so traumatized by world events that the message in that bottle is “retreat?” I don’t really know. My wine drinking habits have been curtailed greatly since Covid. Was it a coincidence? Or part of the stage of life I’m in now? Or some party mix in which I spend time with friends, some time alone, sometime with food, sometime with wine only, and attempt to parse all the disparate pieces and explain it into some convenient little package to make myself feel better? And then to sell it to the outside world? To try and influence others to come along with this cavalcade of culture? Jeesh, that’s not going to work.

OK, back on the road again. Look, there are some very devoted souls working their butts off in vineyards and wineries as we speak, making sure the 2024 vintage becomes something worthwhile, trying to salvage something noble and pure and true from this annus horribilis.

What the future holds for wine in Sicily is a lot like what the future holds for all of us. And at this point in history, it’s going to be what we make of it.

Wine will keep being made in Sicily and the world, until it isn’t. While we humans will keep climbing out of our primordial slime – towards the light and brightness and the sun shine and warmth and meaning and yes, dare I say it – the truth.

 

© written and photographed by Alfonso Cevola limited rights reserved On the Wine Trail in Italy

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