From 6 -10 May 2025, 100 journalists from all over the world will explore the Sicily of wine, its gastronomic and cultural heritage to tell the thousand-year story of an island that looks to the future
5 May 2025 – Again this year, Sicilia en Primeur returns, an event organised by Assovini Sicilia (link) that attracts journalists from all over the world to the island every year. From May 6 to 10, a delegation of 100 journalists from Italy, Europe (France, Poland, Sweden, Germany, Norway) and non-EU countries (Canada, the USA, Japan, China, South Korea, Israel, Brazil, the United Kingdom) will explore Sicily to discover the wealth of the island’s food-and-wine and cultural heritage. It is no coincidence that the claim of the event, now in its 21st edition, is “The Culture of Wine in Sicily: A Thousand-year Story that Looks to the Future”, a slogan that sums up the message that Assovini wants to launch this year.
“Wine, – explains Mariangela Cambria, President of Assovini Sicilia – besides being an agricultural or commercial product, is an essential element of universal culture that spans centuries and civilisations. The culture of wine today also translates into a culture of travel. It is a journey that begins in and sets off from the vineyard, from working the land; it goes through an annual cycle and arrives in the glass, in the bottle, and on tables all over the world. Sicilia En Primeur will tell journalists about part of this journey”.
Like every year, in fact, journalists will be involved in 11 press tours that will explore every corner of Sicily, from Etna to Pantelleria, from Marsala to Agrigento, from Monreale to Lipari, to then meet up in Modica, where the climax of the event will take place on May 9 and 10.
“I’d like to thank the municipal administration of Modica for their hospitality and for having seized this opportunity,” Cambria emphasises. “Sicilia en Primeur will, in fact, be a showcase for this splendid baroque town that journalists will have the opportunity to get to know, visit and talk about in their articles. Special thanks also go to the Enoteca regionale Sud-Est and to the Ats Strade del Vino Cerasuolo di Vittoria, for the synergy and collaboration and for having shared the resources of the territory and the wine production of the South-East area”.
We start on May 9th at 9 am with a technical tasting at the Castello dei Conti di Modica and with 4 talks on current topics, including the tools by which wine can be communicated to new generations, an in-depth look at the new State labels to protect Made in Italy, neuromarketing and consumer psychology, as well as a talk on the numbers of Assovini Sicilia.
At 5:30 p.m., there will be a conference at the Teatro Garibaldi in Modica about the culture of wine understood as informed and conscious drinking, as promotion of the territory through wine tourism, as protection of the environment through increasingly sustainable good practices. Among the speakers, the Master of Wine, Andrea Lonardi, will talk about the „S Factor: The Uniqueness of the Sicilian Wine Continent“, followed by speeches by Dario Stefàno, president of the Wine and Oil Tourism Centre (Lumsa University), and by Antonello Maruotti, professor of Statistics (Lumsa University) on „The South innovating through events, e-commerce and new hospitality models for wine tourism“.Dr Sara Farnetti, Ph.D in Pathophysiology of Metabolism and Nutrition, will shift the spotlight to “Wine Culture: For Informed and Conscious Consumption.” Finally, Alessio Planeta, President of the SOStain Sicilia Foundation, will speak about “The Sustainable Future of Sicilian Wine.” Luciano Ferraro, vice-director of Corriere della Sera, will chair the conference.
The day of the 9th will end with the gala dinner organised in collaboration with La Sicilia di Ulisse. This association brings together Sicilian excellence in the hospitality, gastronomy and viticulture sectors. The menu will be in charge of chefs Accursio Craparo of Radici, Vincenzo Candiano of Locanda Don Serafino (1 Michelin star), Giuseppe Causarano and Antonio Colombo of Votavota (1 Michelin star) and Giuseppe Torrisi of Cortile Santo Spirito (1 Michelin star). The Antica Dolceria Bonajuto in Modica will offer two specialties of its own production, namely Sicilian cassata and chocolate.
“This year, Sicily has been named the 2025 European Gastronomic Region,” says Cambria. “To underline the successful partnership between food and wine at Sicilia en Primeur, the chefs of Sicilia di Ulisse will share their culinary art at the final gala dinner devoted to the producers.”
The event will conclude on Saturday, 10 May, again at the Castello dei Conti, with tastings of wines from the 57 producers who are members of Assovini Sicilia and who will present their labels to journalists. Subsequently, a delegation of national and foreign journalists will take part in the event organized in collaboration with the Enoteca regionale Sud-Est and the Ats Strade del Vino Cerasuolo di Vittoria.
“I would like to thank the Istituto Commercio Estero and our sponsors, without whom this great event would not be possible; an event which has been shining a spotlight on Sicily for 20 years, attracting the attention of the national and international food-and-wine press,” concludes Mariangela Cambria. “Sicilia en Primeur is an eagerly-awaited event that in recent years has contributed significantly to consolidating the image of a Sicilian wine-growing continent dedicated to excellence.”
