A few years ago an agricultural group was formed. The group agreed to buy the grapes from many local growers. The harvest came in and the grapes were delivered. The president of the co-op kept all the money and to this day has not paid any of the growers. He has a lot of money for himself and a fine private cantina. Most of the growers stopped growing the grapes. Why grow grapes if you are not going to get paid?
This story illustrates how fragile life is here. The grapes have a long history...right now there are many, many abandoned grape fields. There are no clear incentives to work these fields. Sicily is general is poor compared to the rest of Europe. Whatever government programs there could be to help promote these wines is lost in corruption and mafia manipulation from Traponi, the government offices for the island on the Sicilian mainland. It is very hard work to get everything in order and to avoid being burned by the bad government practices.. The wine business, in its larger form, is a big enterprise that does not know very well how to market its wines. Many fine, rare wines are lost in this atmosphere and passito is such a lost wine. In many ways, Pantelleria is lost to the mainstream. Many years of broken promises and mistakes have created an idle situation which waits for some people of conscious and sound business practices to bring this wine into the respectable marketplace that it deserves. For me, I am trying as a small, small business man to bring these unknown wines to the United States. Each day brings new revelations which show how and why things have slowed down so much on this island. Pantelleria will not survive as an agricultural jewel without the intervention of some good people.