Make the most from hard times: Solidarity Passito and the spirit of Pantelleria
Pantelleria is a rough land, made of rocks and lava stones and at first sight for those who don’t know it yet might look barren and inhospitable. Nothing is far from reality than this: each year, during summer, nature gives its best and precious fruits of the island, a product that makes the island unique and famous all over the world: Zibibbo grapes. Sweet golden and juicy grapes grown by the sun and nature, a true treasure that is then dried at the sunlight in order to become the ingredient for the well-known Passito; grapes that are so fine that at the end of this summer were stolen. The victim of this maxi-robbery was De Bartoli vineries, top producer of the precious Bukkuram passito, of which 6 tonnes of withered Zibibbo grapes were stolen, the equivalent amount of 20 tons of fresh grapes, with a damage reaching 800Eur per ton. Furthermore, the grapes were supposed to be used to produce this year’s Bukkuram passito.
THE ANSWER TO THE ROBBERY IN PANTELLERIA
It was a huge damage even morally, to which the whole community of Pantelleria answered united and very supportive, especially the producers of the Consorzio Vini Pantelleria Doc (Association of Pantescan wine producers)- that are Pellegrino, Murana, Vinisola, Donnafugata, Basile and Coste di Ghirlanda- by donating, all together, a share of their harvest to de Bartoli, also from the association. So this year instead of Bukkuram passito, there’s going to be a special edition labelled by De Bartoli: Solidarity passito, a joint passito that it will be used to promote the Consorzio Vini Pantelleria Doc.
THE PRIDE OPF PANTELLRIA: THE HEROIC AGRICOLTURE
This was a horrible story that once again showed the most authentic spirit of the island, made of solidarity and ability to overcome any obstacle: a positive attitude that can be seen exactly in the heroic agriculture, in the fatigue and dedication of the farmers of Pantelleria. Is not by chance that UNESCO has included the cultivation of these saplings as world heritage.
