Sicilian Harvest 2022: an excellent vintage with high quality wines

A vineyard in Valledolmo, Sicily

PALERMO – Sicilian vineyards demonstrate an extraordinary ability to manage climate change thanks to the island’s biodiversity and microclimates as the hundred day harvest comes to an end. It began in the western part of Sicily, between the end of July and the first week of August, and finished at the end of October on Mount Etna.

The 2022 Sicilian vintage will be remembered as an “excellent vintage” thanks to its healthy grapes with a perfect acid-sugar balance, great quality, with fresh and balanced whites and reds which are also structured and complex.

The climate in Sicily proved favourable for the entire growing cycle and decisive for the quality of the grapes: a rainy autumn followed by a winter with less rainfall and a cold spring. The high temperatures and dryness of the Sicilian summer inhibited the spread of vine diseases and affected, only in some areas, the drop in production by about 5-10 percent.

“Talking about grape harvest in Sicily is very complicated, because the Island has different climatic conditions and very different varieties” says oenologist Emiliano Falsini. “We will expect great results for Frappato and Grillo of the southern area of Noto and Vittoria as well as in the Caltanissetta area for Grillo and Nero D'Avola, which will be fresh, complex and structured.  Nero D'Avola and white varieties are expected to be great in Lipari, one of the Eolian islands.”

“On Etna, it will be an excellent vintage,” Falsini concludes, “because the grapes are very healthy and in perfect balance.”

For Rallo winery, in western Sicily, the harvest that just ended was “great quality wise, which will produce excellent wines”.

In Butera, in the province of Caltanissetta, in the heart of the island, “the vintage is of high quality with balanced whites and reds that will give life to an interesting complexity,” comments Antonio Paolo Froio, director of Tenuta Principi di Butera.

The quality of the grapes for this 2022 vintage is also great according to Castellucci Miano winery, which practices mountain viticulture in Valledolmo, between 700 and 1050 meters above sea level.

“Healthy and excellent grapes with a 5% increase on quantity for all the varieties,” adds Marco Parisi, winemaker at Feudi del Pisciotto, in Val di Noto.

“I think we can say that the 2022 vintage looks like a great one. The grapes were really perfect with a small increase on quantity for some varietals,” comments Achille Alessi of Terre di Giurfo.

The harvest was also excellent on Etna. On the northern slope, in Castiglione di Sicilia, Francesco Cambria from Cottanera winery and Nicola Gumina, winemaker at Palmento Costanzo, both claim a “great quantity and quality, with grapes perfectly healthy, perfectly ripe with a very rich and elegant flavors and aroma.”

“On Lipari, in the Aeolian Islands, after an uncertain start, the harvest that just ended will lead to great wines,” comments Massimo Lentsch of Tenute di Castellaro.

“Climate change does not seem to affect the excellent quality of Sicilian grapes,” says Laurent de la Gatinais, president of Assovini Sicilia. “Sicily demonstrates, once again, the extraordinary ability to manage the consequences of climate change, thanks to the variety of its wine heritage, which is mostly native with great biodiversity, and to the extraordinary microclimates in the different areas.”

 © COPYRIGHT ITALIAN INSIDER
UNAUTHORISED REPRODUCTION FORBIDDEN