Com-St-06-05-29-CantineAperte-2006_ENG-1.pdf
At Donnafugata’s Contessa Entellina estate, record-setting visits and interest in quality wine.
From 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, May 28, a steady flow of visitors festively flocked to the Donnafugata wine estate on the Contessa Entellina hills for the 2006 edition of Cantine Aperte (Open Cellars), the annual event organized by the Wine Tourism Movement.
Wine lovers from Italy and abroad (Germany, Norway, the United States and others) and entire families attracted by the offer of entertainment for children spent a day at Donnafugata that was really special: a “full immersion” revealing the production philosophy of a company that is ambassador for fine wine “Made in Sicily.”
All along the itinerary—from the Chardonnay vineyards to the vinification cellars for whites and reds, and above all at the tasting—the Donnafugata team welcomed wine tourists with its customary enthusiasm, explaining vineyard cultivation techniques, the reasons for picking grapes during the day or night, the use of cold technologies and the processes of vinifying and refining wines in barrels and bottles.
It was an ideal route from vineyard to bottle, which stimulated and satisfied curiosity. And it was above all at the Donnafugata tastings that the party really took off: a thousand contented toasts at tasting some of the finest vintages of wines that have made history in the Sicilian sector: Mille e una Notte (1999, 2003) and Tancredi (2001, 2002, 2003), Chiarandà (2000, 2001, 2002, 2004), Vigna di Gabri (2002, 2003, 2005), and the prodigious Ben Ryé Passito di Pantelleria (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004).
According to José Rallo of Donnafugata, “this was an enthusiastic public, meaningful for its level of wine knowledge. A fact that we duly note year after year and that shows great development in people’s approach to the wine world, even among emerging consumers like women and young people. For 14 years Cantine Aperte has been promoting wine education and has certainly aided in achieving this result.”
Another favorable note regarded attendance by children, who were able to enjoy wine-world entertainment ranging from cork workshops to the myth of Ulysses, offered by the Apecheronza Association of Palermo.
Baldo M. Palermo [email protected] phone +39 0923 724226
Laura Ellwanger: [email protected] phone. +39 0923 724258
Nando Calaciura [email protected] mob. +39 338 3229837
