Heritage

A Taste of Sicily

Alessio

Winemaker Alessio Planeta makes a presentation on Sicilian wine. PHOTO | COURTESY

Sicily in Italy is famous for many things including its food, its terrain and its antiquities.

Planeta winemaker Alessio Planeta wants to bring Sicily in its many forms to your tongue in Nairobi.

“My family was in agriculture for a century but my generation in the nineties was thinking about making top quality wines and to go around the world to tell the story of Sicily,” says Alessio.

Before this, the family still made wine but on a much smaller scale.

“My grandpa had a winery in the village, but the concept was completely different from today. He was making bulk wine for the locals in a time where people used to drink wine everyday at home as a very important part of the diet,” he says.

“Today, wine is much more fashionable. It is much more the pleasure of sharing a bottle of wine in the restaurant or at home But that time was completely different,” he explains.

In 1995, the new Planeta outfit had its first harvest and they got their first bottle in the market in 1996. Today, 23 years later, Planeta has five wineries in different regions within Sicily and exports to more than 70 countries.

In 2011, Alessio’s dream to spread vidi knowledge and culture made its first arrival in Kenya. The Nairobi entrance was made possible by his friendship with the importer and wine specialist Nebiat Tekle-Corino.

According to Alessio, who was in Nairobi for a tasting at Village Market’s Italian wine shop Enoteca, Kenyans, like the rest of the world, have evolved and grown their knowledge and passion for wine.

“The ones with more experience with our company want to taste the new wines.Others prefer more classic wines like our chardonnay because it is the kind of wine you find in a restaurant in New York too,” says Alessio.

“This country seems to have more red wine drinkers than white wine drinkers like in many other countries, but to discover white wines is always interesting” he adds.

As a wine lover, his preferred wines change as he samples more and more wines, but he currently loves wines from the South of France. He is hesitant to say which of his own wines are his favourite.

“Well, as a winemaker and responsible lover they should be all my favourite. I should love all of them. My sons should all be the same but as a father usually the younger is the favourite. And so at the moment I can say my favourite wine is the one from Etna.
The grapes Planeta grows at Etna are local and grow on the slopes of a 3,200 metre volcano.

Sicily has been home to wines for many years and boasts a diversity in terrain, weather conditions and soils, which produce different types of wines.

“Every place gives you completely different wine. People have an idea of Sicily as a very warm place, but it is not true. Of course it is much warmer than the north of Italy but it is surrounded by the sea so we have everyday sea breeze,” says Alessio.

Its geographical position also place it at the centre of the development of many civilisations.

“Traditional wine making culture and its development happen through the Mediterranean sea from the West to the East and Sicily was at the centre of this. All the Greeks, Phoenicians and Romans always stopped in Sicily and so the result is our vidi culture, a mix of many different influences,” says Mr. Planeta.

Italy produced more than 17 percent of the world’s wines in 2018. Sharing first place with Puglia, Sicily has the largest number of vineyards in the region. Planeta’s total land is 400 hectares of vineyard.

Planeta plants both native grapes and international grapes. Their chardonnay won them a position among the top 100 wines globally in the Wine Spectator which he calls the “Wine Bible.”

“We were the first Sicilians to be there. It is a chardonnay that we have made since 1995 and very high quality,” he says.

However, Alessio has a soft spot for native grapes too.

“Native grapes are a treasure of Italian vidi culture. It is not super easy because there are many native grapes. To communicate to the market and to explain to people, you need much more time. It is much easier to sell a sauvignon blanc but native grapes are also something very very unique from your own country only,” he explains.

Alessio is also interested in how food pairs with his wines. Of those at the tasting, the Nero d’Avola goes with any kind of pasta and eggplant sauce. The Santa Cecilia is very good with lamb, the Mamertino from the north of sicily would be great with cheese and the Cerasuolo di Vittoria is, according to him, the perfect red wine for tuna.

“Life is not easy and a good glass of wine is for you to travel with your mind to the country where the wine comes from,” he adds.