I had been trying since last year to get a sit down with Maurizio Lunetta, Director of the Etna Consorzio, to gain his perspective on the current and future state of the region. Perseverence paid off and Brandon and I were able to sit with him earlier in the week in the heart of Milo’s Piazza Belvedere.
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| Maurizio Lunetta and Brandon Tokash during our sit-down at Milo's Piazza Belvedere |
Maurizio is an Agrinomist by training (and practice). In an earlier phase of his life, he spent 10 years in South Africa running Agricultural Research projects for the Italian Government and the EU. At the completion of that stint he traveled to Palermo and worked in its wine sector during the 1990s. He was Director of Sicilia DOC for 5 years..
He came to his current position at the initiative of Antonio Benanti, past President of the Consorzio. Maurizio worked as a Consultant for 6 months after which the Board of Constitution appointed him head of the Consorzio. He was not totally unfamiliar with the region as Carlo Nicolosi, father of Baron di Villagrande’s Marco Nicolosi, had been his Thesis Advisor at University.
The Consorzio had historically hired internally but it was not difficult for Maurizio coming in as an outsider because: (i) the producers did not have any conflicts with each other and (ii) they were from elsewhere anyway,
Maurizio is of the mindset that you cannot have a strong DOC without a strong Consorzio. Etna was first appointed DOC in 1968, the first Sicilian wine region to be so honored, and among the earliest in Italy. In June of 1994, the Constitution of Protection was founded with the aim of “enhancing and protecting the production of Etna wines and their territories.” The Consorzio was recognized in a 2018 Ministerial Decree and, at that time, according to Maurizio, became the owner of the brand Etna DOC. It gained control of the label, production, and the brand. It subsequently took control of production requirements and testing of bottles to ensure adherence to DOC requirements.
As Maurizio sees it, a strong DOC can manage the production such that high quality is maintained. The DOC should also have limited-gradient growth. Further, both large and small producers should be on board with the program.
The DOC covers 1,347 ha today (up from 680 in 2013; a doubling over a little more that 10 years) and Maurizio expects it to increase to 1500 ha in a year and to 2000 ha five years out. There are currently 447 growers (up from 203 in 2013) and 50% of those are planting less than 1 ha. There are 180 wine producers but only half of them have their own wineries. Wine production went from 26,135 hL in 2013 to 58,274 hL in 2024.
Prior to 2018, the DOCs border was not clearly defined. After its recognition in 2018, the Consorzio began work in this area and has now clearly defined the boundaries of the appellation. Within the broader DOC the Consorzio has sought to further subdivide the region by contrada. They began with 153 and added eight more as a part of the recently completed mapping project. Of the total defined contrade, only 30 are currently being used for grape growing. Much more work has to be done to understand and spell out inter-contrada differences. In the meantime. says Maurizio. it is a positive marketing vehicle.
The 6-person Consorzio team is very active during the course of the year. They are currently wrapping up their participation in ViniMilo2025 and are organizing EtnaDays2025.
Going forward, Maurizio would like to go deeper into wine and wine-related research. They would like to explore the potential of new white and red varieties which could bolster/substitute the elements of the existing portfolio if climate change does the kind of damage that is feared. Maurizio is working with the University of Catania on plants and temperature.
Another potential area of research is timing of activities. Harvests are being done earlier and earlier; the vines’ cycle has changed but humans have not materially changed how they work these vines. Maurizio sees this as an area worth exploring.
Our conversation next turned to the challenges facing the region. Without skipping a beat Maurizio mentioned climate change. They need more research he said. One of the potential solution, as he sees it, is to move to higher elevations but he fears that if you open up the discussion re higher elevations, that folks would also be clamoring for extending the discipline to accommodate currently excluded, lower elevations. The other aspect is that while the climatic aspects may be solved by going higher, it is not clear that there is enough weathered sils at those elevations to accommodate large-scale upward movement.
Second, the Consorzio does not have a market observatory; it has to depend on members for whatever tidbits of insight they get in on market issues and trends. So rather than providing this as a service to members, the Consorzio is a sink in this case.
The third challenge is maintaining quality, especially given the intense growth in production capacity and far less so in the monitoring and quality control infrastructures.
I posed a question about the impact of tariffs on the producers. Maurizio did not seem too concerned about it as a standalone issue. He was more concerned about the decline in the value of the dollar which has effectively increased the price of the wines to customers in the US. And while the tariffs, once implemented, are fixed, the dollar could continue its decline and cause further pain to the wine sector. And if you put the tariffs on top of that, it becomes an even bigger problem.
As regards the tariffs, importers are asking the Consorzio to share the pain and, as a result, shield the US consumer. It seems to be something that is under consideration.
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Some observations:
- Maurizio is more of an administrator than a visionary (this is not a judgment as each role has value in its time and place) and, given where Etna wine is right now, he fits the bill. He is not focused on flowery visions of the future. Rather, his focus is on managing growth, strengthening the DOC, and promoting the region to outsiders as much as possible.
- His pursuit of other grape varieties to fill a potential future gap is more of a "canary in a coal mine" rather than "a voice in the wilderness." In a recent Gambero Rosso interview, Salvo Foti mentioned other grape varieties that are currently not prominent but can be considered native to the region. He considers them native because they have been cultivated in the region for a very long time. He first mentioned Grenache, which grows on the northwest slopes at altitudes above 1000 m. He also mentioned Grecanico, Minnella Bianca, Minnella Nera, and other "relic" grape varieties which are currently undergoing university studies.
- I do not know whether I failed to ask the right questions or this is a reflection of reality but we did not spend any time on Consorzio-members interaction and iniatives, either ground up or top down.
- Maurizio indicated that the Consorzio works to center the issues and concerns of all its members, regardless of size. In a subsequent discussion with a producer, this person mentioned that one of his frustrations with the Consorzio is that most of its work appears to center the needs and concerns of the larger producers. I will continue to pull on this thread in future discussions.
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