Tenuta Regaleali Tasca d'Almerita

The north, center and south of Italy are represented in the inaugural edition of the Robert Parker Wine Green Emblem awards. However, of these three territories only the deep south of the country has taken concrete steps to adopt a model of sustainable farming that applies to an entire region, and not just a single winery or small growers’ association. Only one region has endeavored to tackle the issues as a collective, an all-hands-on-deck group effort. Sicily, the sun-soaked island at the heart of the Mediterranean, has always enjoyed a healthy tendency toward independence and out-of-the-box thinking. It is the first Italian region to develop an integrated sustainability protocol for wineries, with a 10-point action plan, a scientific committee for oversight and a certification logo that wineries can print on their bottles. The program is called SOStain (Save our Soils), and it was launched in 2010 by the Tasca d’Almerita family, one of the oldest and most celebrated winemaking families on the island. Alberto Tasca d’Almerita created SOStain and is president of the foundation today with other like-minded Sicilian vintners who serve on the board of directors. Alberto was one of the first Italian producers to embrace the VIVA Sustainable Wine project developed by the Italian Ministry for the Environment and Protection of Land and Sea to promote better winegrowing practices. As head of his family winery, Alberto publishes his own annual Sustainability Report and is committed to organic, biodynamic and SOStain-certified farming across his various vineyard holdings. The 10 ingredients of the SOStain sustainability protocol are: low-impact farming with no chemical weed control; measuring the impact on air, water, vineyards and territory according to the VIVA indicators; planting cover crops to protect the soils in winter; reducing electric energy consumption in winemaking to 0.6 kilowatt-hours per liter of wine; making lighter glass bottles less than or equal to 485.8 grams of glass per 750-milliliter bottle; requiring that 100% of purchased grapes, 80% of employees and 50% of services are locally sourced, adhering to biodiversity protection with the measurable presence of earthworms, butterflies, terrestrial invertebrates and pollinators; using eco-compatible materials in the vineyards; requiring a published year-end sustainability report; and submitting wines to analysis to ensure that sulfur contents are equal to or less than the values set by the European regulation governing organic wine. The VIVA Sustainable Wine project looks at four indicators to assess the environmental impact of a winery: air (CO2 emissions); water (measuring the consumption of fresh water); vineyard (looking at vineyard management practices and their effect on ecosystems); and region, or assessing the interaction between man, nature and winemaking. The result? Sicily is the largest organic vineyard in Italy today, comprising 34% of all organic vines in the country.

The Tasca d’Almerita family has made wine for eight generations. Founded in 1830, the winery is headquartered in Regaleali at the foothills of the Madonie Mountains outside Palermo. Over the past 20 years, the winery has added new vineyard sites to its portfolio, giving the family an island-wide vantage point. All vineyards follow SOStain protocols. At the Regaleali estate, Tasca d’Almerita has organic, biodynamic and conventional sustainable vineyards. The Capofaro property on the island of Salina, Tascante on Mount Etna and Sallier de la Tour in Camporeale see organic and biodynamic farming according to the vintage. On the island of Mozia, where the Grillo grape is planted among the ruins of an ancient Phoenician city, farming is certified organic. The Rosso del Conte, a red blend made by Tasca d’Almerita starting with the 1970 vintage, is one of Sicily’s icon wine.