5


4


148 CSD


6


5


now, they’ll foist a republic on us. If we want things to stay as they are, everything will have to change.”


The superficiality of change on the ancient island becomes a theme of Lampedusa’s great work.


Notwithstanding Lampedusa’s political fatalism, in the world of wine there really has been change in Sicily—a revolution, in fact.


Three Visionaries Sicily is a great place to grow wine. Enological fecundity has been a mixed blessing for the island, though. The Oxford Companion to Wine reports that “concentration on quantity over quality” led to overproduc- tion, declining prices and poor sales. This was unsustainable,


and as a famed economist once said, “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” It did stop, thanks to Sicily’s wine revolutionaries. Giacomo Rallo and his wife, Gabriella Anca, founded the Donnafugata Winery (donna fugata.it) in 1983.


The name Donnafugata—


literally, woman on the run— refers to a Queen of Naples who in the Napoleonic period fled Naples for Sicily, where she found refuge in the town of Santa Margherita di Bèlice, southwest of Palermo. Lampedusa set part of The Leopard there, calling the area Donnafugata. Diego Planeta was head of Cantine Settesoli (cantinesett esoli.it), a Sicilian wine coop- erative. During decades at


the helm, Planeta encouraged his members to modernize. “I understood that enology had to change,” he told an interview- er. “We couldn’t just keep on crushing grapes with our feet.” In the 1990s, Planeta decided to start a family wine business. Working with Alessio, Francesca and Santi Planeta, he founded the Planeta company (planeta.it), which now owns vineyards in multiple locations around Sicily. Planeta has pioneered in enotourism, establishing luxurious resorts near several of its wineries. Writers love to describe


Lucio Tasca d’Almerita as “the last of the Sicilian leopards.” His family owns an estate in the heart of Palermo (villatasca.com) and Regaleali (tascadalmerita.it), a wine business they have oper-


4. The pool at Planeta’s La Foresteria Estate near Menfi.


5. Vineyards at Donnafugata’s Contessa Entellina estate.


6. Breakfast at La Foresteria.


ated since the 1830s. Tasca told a journalist, “In the 1970s we only sold generic wine in barrels, then my father decided to bottle it and export quality wine.” In the 1980s the company began producing Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir. Today Regaleali is devoting attention to native varieties. “We are developing the native varietals now to cre- ate a legacy for our children,” he says.


In 1998, these warriors for quality—Rallo, Planeta and Tasca—founded Assovini Sicilia (assovinisicilia.it), which created


Photograph courtesy of Planeta


Photograph courtesy of Donnafugata: Anna Pakula


Photograph courtesy of Planeta


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