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- Chris Boiling
- 2025-04-08
Some of the problems currently facing wine may not be wine’s fault; it may be the way the story is told. That’s the intriguing view of one Italian wine producer.
Wine’s history is one of reinvention and reinterpretation to remain relevant and contemporary. However, today, the wine industry faces a multitude of challenges — including unpredictable weather patterns, changing terroir profiles, earlier harvests, rising production costs, labour shortages, supply chain disruptions, shifting consumer preferences, disinterested younger adults, tariffs and trade wars, changing labelling laws, water scarcity, pesticide restrictions, and overproduction.
So, ahead of this week’s Vinitaly, Aziende Agricole Planeta from Sicily revealed its new manifesto to improve wine’s image: “Wine is a Contemporary Story”. It’s their way of telling the story positively. The winery says their new approach comprises “a cultural program, an approach to work and a vision of the world”.
Planeta plans to dedicate this year to telling the contemporary story of wine through a series of events and initiatives that reaffirm its role as a bridge between past and future, as a witness to time, and as a protagonist of today's culture.
With so many negative stories about wine, it's heartening to hear this positive view.
Planeta says winemaking is “a creative act, just like music, theatre or literature”. Therefore, part of its plan is to use its wineries as “spaces for artistic expression”, while vineyards are transformed into settings for theatre and music, and “the time of winemaking is intertwined with the time of reflection. The beauty of the places, the elegance of the wineries and the aesthetics of wine are essential elements of this contemporary narrative, in which wine is not just a product, but a total cultural experience.”
To support this idea, Planeta Cultura has launched a raft of events that explore the link between wine, art, music, theatre and contemporary thought. The highlight will be a special day in June, in Noto, when Wine is a Contemporary Story will become an open-ended, shared dialogue, from which a Manifesto of Contemporary Wine will be born.
June 16: Wine is a Contemporary Story in Noto, Buonivini winery. This is an event that tells the story of wine as a cultural phenomenon, through discussions among producers, experts, and artists. It will also visit Constellations of Art, a collection housed in the vineyards and wine cellar that is now boosted by a new work by Vanessa Beecroft. The conversation will lead to the drafting of the Wine is a Contemporary Story Manifesto.
The event will include two panels with different speakers:
June 28: Mario Merz Music Prize – concert of finalists, Sambuca di Sicilia, Ulmo winery. The event combines wine and contemporary music, offering an immersive experience of sounds, nature and taste. Part of the Premio Merz Musica project, it will take place at the Planeta Ulmo winery in Sambuca di Sicilia and at Ulysses Studiolo, hosting a music section, with production by the Merz Foundation.
July 26, August 1-2: Theatre in the Vineyard – Sciaranuova Festival, Etna, Sciaranuova estate. Now in its ninth edition, Sciaranuova Festival transforms vineyards into a natural stage, bringing theatre into the heart of nature and creating a unique dialogue between performance and landscape. Created in 2015 amidst the vineyards of Sciaranuova and the restored millstone, the festival unites the worlds of wine and entertainment. Here, too, vineyard becomes theatre: the terraces once used for vine cultivation are transformed into a proscenium, while the mountains, lava and centuries-old pines become stage backdrops. The initiative stems from the desire to enhance this natural amphitheatre and invest in theatre production, offering Etna a cultural project capable of promoting the territory through art.
August: Readings at Ulysses Studiolo, Sambuca di Sicilia. A journey into the magic of reading and thinking in a symbolic place created to remember Vito Planeta and his boundless love of reading, with a special focus on his “magnificent obsessions” – first and foremost Joyce’s Ulysses. The meetings, structured as classic readings, will feature a dialogue between the curators – journalist Sara Scarafia and philosopher Marco Carapezza – and the actors, who will choose texts from the Studiolo to restore life to this evocative building on the shores of Lake Arancio, on the slopes of the La Segreta forest, and make it a cultural centre immersed in the vineyards, in constant dialogue with the landscape. A tribute to Vito's sensibility, his history and his work, also open to those who did not get to know him.
September: The 30th anniversary of Planeta Chardonnay celebrated in places of art. Planeta’s cultural journey reaches a significant milestone with the September celebration of the 30th anniversary of Planeta Chardonnay. For the occasion, a special edition will be presented paying tribute to the winery's history and its commitment to the world of wine. A celebratory label reproducing Claire Fontaine's work titled On Fire will lead us to reflect on wars and fires; it is destined to become an integral part of the barrel cellar of the Ulmo estate in Sambuca di Sicilia, transforming it into a place to pause and reflect. To pay tribute to this milestone, the presentation will have an international resonance, touching on symbolic places of contemporary art: museums and art galleries will be the stage for worldwide events, where history and contemporaneity will meet in a dialogue between wine and culture.
All these events are linked by one common thread: the belief that wine is not just a product, but a language, an experience, an art form in itself, according to the wine producer. Planeta continues: “Wine is a Contemporary Story is a manifesto, but it is also a journey. A journey that starts from Sicily, crosses time and space, and becomes an expression of a new way of narrating wine, art, and culture.”
Alessio Planeta (above, right), CEO and technical manager at Aziende Agricole Planeta, sums it up this way: “This is a time when, looking back on the thousand-year history of wine, wineries have never been so beautiful, manicured, elegant; vineyards never been so harmonious and sustainable, with an even scientific effort to make viticulture a farming operation in balance with nature. Wines have probably never been as good as they are now, and consumers have never been as informed as they are now. However, it seems that the world of wine today is being challenged, a target of attack from so many angles – primarily a decline in consumption; the narrative that used to be all positive now appears to me to be more critical and negative. Yet, wine has always been a symbol of conviviality, a cultural creation capable of bringing people together and enriching human relationships, fostering sharing and dialogue. At a time when its value risks being misunderstood or underestimated, it is essential to remember that wine is not just a product, but a true cultural and social experience that has accompanied humanity for millennia.”
Wine’s history is one of reinvention and reinterpretation to remain relevant and contemporary. However, today, the wine industry faces a multitude of challenges — including unpredictable weather patterns, changing terroir profiles, earlier harvests, rising production costs, labour shortages, supply chain disruptions, shifting consumer preferences, disinterested younger adults, tariffs and trade wars, changing labelling laws, water scarcity, pesticide restrictions, and overproduction.
So, ahead of this week’s Vinitaly, Aziende Agricole Planeta from Sicily revealed its new manifesto to improve wine’s image: “Wine is a Contemporary Story”. It’s their way of telling the story positively. The winery says their new approach comprises “a cultural program, an approach to work and a vision of the world”.
Their vision
Their positive view is that:- Wine has never been as good as it is today;
- The viticultural landscape has never been so well cared for;
- Winemakers have never been so environmentally conscious;
- Wine connoisseurs have never been so informed;
- Wine has never been so certified and controlled.
Planeta plans to dedicate this year to telling the contemporary story of wine through a series of events and initiatives that reaffirm its role as a bridge between past and future, as a witness to time, and as a protagonist of today's culture.
‘Wine is a total cultural experience’
With so many negative stories about wine, it's heartening to hear this positive view.
Planeta says winemaking is “a creative act, just like music, theatre or literature”. Therefore, part of its plan is to use its wineries as “spaces for artistic expression”, while vineyards are transformed into settings for theatre and music, and “the time of winemaking is intertwined with the time of reflection. The beauty of the places, the elegance of the wineries and the aesthetics of wine are essential elements of this contemporary narrative, in which wine is not just a product, but a total cultural experience.”
To support this idea, Planeta Cultura has launched a raft of events that explore the link between wine, art, music, theatre and contemporary thought. The highlight will be a special day in June, in Noto, when Wine is a Contemporary Story will become an open-ended, shared dialogue, from which a Manifesto of Contemporary Wine will be born.
The cultural programme
May 18: Presentation of the new edition of Viaggio in Sicilia in Turin. Viaggio in Sicilia is a nomadic residency project that, every two years, welcomes Italian and international artists on a journey through the island, discovering places, stories and atmospheres, and later shapes the suggestions gathered during the journey into an exhibition that showcases their essence. In the historic headquarters of the Fondazione Merz, in Via Limone, Turin, on the occasion of the Salone del Libro, Planeta will officially unveil the artist selected for the 2025 edition.June 16: Wine is a Contemporary Story in Noto, Buonivini winery. This is an event that tells the story of wine as a cultural phenomenon, through discussions among producers, experts, and artists. It will also visit Constellations of Art, a collection housed in the vineyards and wine cellar that is now boosted by a new work by Vanessa Beecroft. The conversation will lead to the drafting of the Wine is a Contemporary Story Manifesto.
The event will include two panels with different speakers:
- “Contemporary Wineries,” dedicated to innovation in the wine world;
- “Contemporary Wines and More,” an exploration of the frontiers of contemporary taste through reflections and discussions.
June 28: Mario Merz Music Prize – concert of finalists, Sambuca di Sicilia, Ulmo winery. The event combines wine and contemporary music, offering an immersive experience of sounds, nature and taste. Part of the Premio Merz Musica project, it will take place at the Planeta Ulmo winery in Sambuca di Sicilia and at Ulysses Studiolo, hosting a music section, with production by the Merz Foundation.
July 26, August 1-2: Theatre in the Vineyard – Sciaranuova Festival, Etna, Sciaranuova estate. Now in its ninth edition, Sciaranuova Festival transforms vineyards into a natural stage, bringing theatre into the heart of nature and creating a unique dialogue between performance and landscape. Created in 2015 amidst the vineyards of Sciaranuova and the restored millstone, the festival unites the worlds of wine and entertainment. Here, too, vineyard becomes theatre: the terraces once used for vine cultivation are transformed into a proscenium, while the mountains, lava and centuries-old pines become stage backdrops. The initiative stems from the desire to enhance this natural amphitheatre and invest in theatre production, offering Etna a cultural project capable of promoting the territory through art.
August: Readings at Ulysses Studiolo, Sambuca di Sicilia. A journey into the magic of reading and thinking in a symbolic place created to remember Vito Planeta and his boundless love of reading, with a special focus on his “magnificent obsessions” – first and foremost Joyce’s Ulysses. The meetings, structured as classic readings, will feature a dialogue between the curators – journalist Sara Scarafia and philosopher Marco Carapezza – and the actors, who will choose texts from the Studiolo to restore life to this evocative building on the shores of Lake Arancio, on the slopes of the La Segreta forest, and make it a cultural centre immersed in the vineyards, in constant dialogue with the landscape. A tribute to Vito's sensibility, his history and his work, also open to those who did not get to know him.
September: The 30th anniversary of Planeta Chardonnay celebrated in places of art. Planeta’s cultural journey reaches a significant milestone with the September celebration of the 30th anniversary of Planeta Chardonnay. For the occasion, a special edition will be presented paying tribute to the winery's history and its commitment to the world of wine. A celebratory label reproducing Claire Fontaine's work titled On Fire will lead us to reflect on wars and fires; it is destined to become an integral part of the barrel cellar of the Ulmo estate in Sambuca di Sicilia, transforming it into a place to pause and reflect. To pay tribute to this milestone, the presentation will have an international resonance, touching on symbolic places of contemporary art: museums and art galleries will be the stage for worldwide events, where history and contemporaneity will meet in a dialogue between wine and culture.
All these events are linked by one common thread: the belief that wine is not just a product, but a language, an experience, an art form in itself, according to the wine producer. Planeta continues: “Wine is a Contemporary Story is a manifesto, but it is also a journey. A journey that starts from Sicily, crosses time and space, and becomes an expression of a new way of narrating wine, art, and culture.”
Approach to work
Planeta’s research not only covers viticulture and oenology, but it’s also philosophical: what does it mean to be contemporary today? There is a tension between present and past: wine is a living matter, constantly evolving, challenging time and its definitions. “We have gone from the wine of grape varieties in the 1980s, to the wine of brands in the 1990s, to the wine of terroirs in the 2000s, to the ideological and natural wine of the 2020s, to the wine of today, which seeks a balance between identity, sustainability and innovation. Actualizing this journey means telling it from a contemporary perspective, enhancing its aesthetic, productive, and cultural evolution.”Alessio Planeta (above, right), CEO and technical manager at Aziende Agricole Planeta, sums it up this way: “This is a time when, looking back on the thousand-year history of wine, wineries have never been so beautiful, manicured, elegant; vineyards never been so harmonious and sustainable, with an even scientific effort to make viticulture a farming operation in balance with nature. Wines have probably never been as good as they are now, and consumers have never been as informed as they are now. However, it seems that the world of wine today is being challenged, a target of attack from so many angles – primarily a decline in consumption; the narrative that used to be all positive now appears to me to be more critical and negative. Yet, wine has always been a symbol of conviviality, a cultural creation capable of bringing people together and enriching human relationships, fostering sharing and dialogue. At a time when its value risks being misunderstood or underestimated, it is essential to remember that wine is not just a product, but a true cultural and social experience that has accompanied humanity for millennia.”
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