To make Catarratto no longer the symbol of an agricultural Sicily that produces a lot, but the sign of a wine-producing Sicily that wants to produce better, tell its story better, and sell better. For decades, this wine has been described almost exclusively through numbers: hectares, yields, production capacity. Now a group of producers is trying to change perspective. Catarratto must become a story. And the story must start from the places.
Read more Ukraine, here’s Zelensky’s open letter to Putin
A paradigm shift in a difficult phase for wine
The point is not just oenological. It is economic and cultural. In a difficult phase for wine, where producing a lot is no longer enough to stay on the market, the choice to focus on Catarratto takes on the value of a paradigm shift. It means taking a historic grape variety, often associated with quantity, and transforming it into a lever of identity, reputation, and value. No longer the wine that fills cellars. But the wine that tells the story of a territory and tries to assert itself for its qualities.
The Catarratto Festival in Santa Cristina Gela
This is where the first Catarratto Festival originates, scheduled for June 6 and 7 in Santa Cristina Gela, in the Palermo area. Not a simple promotional event, but an experiment that can become a model: bringing together producers, local community, Arbëreshë culture, gastronomy, and landscape to build a stronger narrative around wine. Catarratto is not presented as an isolated product, but as an expression of a precise area, of an agricultural history, and of a community that preserves language, traditions, and memory.
Read more Tourist guides: selections today, test calendar on Monday
«The first Catarratto Festival was born as an experiment in education, promotion, and enhancement of Catarratto», explains Sebastiano Di Bella, president of ARCA and producer. The objective, he adds, is to involve «the territory and the local community» and integrate wine production «into a broader cultural context», making known the most authentic expressions of the grape variety.
Arca’s companies and Catarratto’s numbers
The initiative is promoted by Arca, the Regional Association of Authentic Catarratto, together with the six founding companies: Bagliesi, Caruso & Minini, Castellucci Miano, Di Bella, Feudo Disisa, and Tenute Lombardo. The project starts from an impressive fact: in Sicily, Catarratto still occupies about 28 thousand hectares, although in the nineties it was about 90 thousand. Within this reduction, there is already the sign of a finished season. The future can no longer be entrusted solely to production capacity. It must pass through selection, quality, and recognizability.
Read more Leo XIV from June 6 to 12 in Spain, the return of a pontiff after 15 years. The migrant issues…
