Regional Institute of Wine and Oil

Harvest 2016, 26 years of activity for the experimental Irvo winery

The harvest in the IRVO fields ended just over a month ago. Harvest that bears the number 26: these are in fact the years of activity for the experimental microvinification cellar “G. Dalmasso” of the institution.

A company based in Marsala (Tp) and which carries out a series of activities aimed at improving Sicilian wines.

“It is a reality that not only works, and the results achieved to date demonstrate this – comments the director of IRVO, Vincenzo Cusumano – but which represents one of the fulcrums of the organisation's activity at the service of the Sicilian wine production world ”.

This year, in particular, the work was focused on the valorisation of minor native varieties. Twenty-one were the subject of field observations and experimental transformation. Rucignola, Alzano, Prunesta, Cutrera, Zu' Matteo, Bracau, just to name a few of the varieties used and which are found in the "Verbumcaudo" vineyard, within the "Sicilian vine germplasm bank", created at the same time as the programs developed by the regional agriculture department.

The objective is to produce a Wine of Legality, symbol of the potential of these lands confiscated from the mafia.

Other grapes are those coming from an altitude of 1,200 m. above sea level in the Nebrodi area: it is here, in Ucria, that another experimental IRVO vineyard is located and its Catarratto grapes were the last to be harvested.

The experimental activity in the field and in the cellar of the Regional Institute of Wine and Oil has simultaneously embraced other themes in this period: from the updating of the regional ampelographic platform, with tests on varieties obtained by crossing, to the recovery of varieties disappearance, specifically Moscato Cerletti; from the Spumante dei Nebrodi project (classic method) with microvinifications of Catarratto and Chardonnay grapes, to the study of vineyard management models with the aim of improving the quality of production and also to the technical assistance activity with specific tests intended for some wineries of the Trapani area.

Not only the harvest but, in the experimental cellar, training activities were also carried out, especially of a practical nature, aimed at students of the Degree Course in Viticulture and Oenology at the University of Palermo. Activities that will also continue during the refinement and maturation phases of the various wines produced.

At the beginning of the new year, technical tastings will be organized to transfer the results of the different experiences to the production world.