Wine Between Climate Crisis, Technology, and Tradition – Sicily as an Open-Air Laboratory
Wine Between Climate Crisis, Technology, and Tradition – Sicily as an Open-Air Laboratory
Publish Date: 2026-06-06 12:06:00
Source Domain: www.fairplanet.org
On the island where wine is both cultural heritage and an economic pillar, a silent revolution is underway — one weather station at a time. But the real question is not whether the technology works. It is whether it can integrate without erasing centuries of knowledge that no algorithm can replicate.
On July 1, 2025, Francesco Spadafora was in his vineyards, 450 metres above sea level, in the Virzì district of western Sicily. Compared to just two weeks earlier, humidity at dawn had collapsed from 98 per cent to minimal levels, while temperatures had already climbed above 30 degrees Celsius by nine in the morning. ‘The leaves had curled in on themselves like never before,’ he recalled, squinting into the blazing midday sun of May. Already as hot as August.
Spadafora is a third-generation organic winemaker and a member of the Italian Federation of Independent Winegrowers. His 180 hectares between Palermo and Alcamo tell the story of a Sicily long accustomed to sun and drought, but unprepared for climatic conditions this extreme. Downy mildew – a vine disease traditionally associated with the humid climates of northern Europe – has now spread into vineyards across southern Italy, one of the most unexpected consequences of this shift. ‘This is one of the clearest effects of climate change, but certainly not the only one,’ Spadafora told FairPlanet.
Two hundred kilometres away, on the plains of Menfi, Filippo Buttafuoco described the same crisis, referring to 2023 as an ‘annus horribilis’. For 25 years he has served as agronomist for Cantine Settesoli and the Mandrarossa label. ‘We had an extremely rainy spring that turned Sicily green like Scotland. Then suddenly came a week of extreme heat, with peaks close to 50 degrees Celsius. Under those conditions the vine can no longer defend itself,’ he said. ‘The real critical issue is not drought itself, but the speed with which the climate swings from one extreme to another.’
