Farewell to Vito Planeta, cultural soul of the well-known Sicilian winery – Corriere.it

He could spend hours at the table, looking out to sea from his home in Capparrina – in Menfi, Sicily – and talking about the things he loved in a hoarse, reassuring voice. He moved quickly and lucidly from one topic to another, from James Joyce’s writing to history booksto politics and contemporary art, always arousing a certain amazement in one’s interlocutors.

It was really a quick thought, very fast, unsettling, but never over the top or centered on himself, that of Vito Planeta, who disappeared on the afternoon of Sunday 19 February, after an illness that gave him no escape and snatched him from life within months. She was only 57 years old and was many things together, but above all she was the cultural soul of the famous family winery (founded by his uncle Diego and now led by the brothers Alessio and Santi and by their cousin Francesca), with cellars in Sambuca, Menfi, Vittoria, Noto, on Etna and Capo Milazzo.

Wine was one of his passions, but he loved to contextualize it, bringing out the territory, the history, his Sicilian land, the people… Wine became the starting point from which to create complex and above all far-sighted cultural operationslike the one he had called Trip to Sicilymade with the art historian Valentina Bruschi selecting young artists to whom a residence was offered while traveling through the enchanted places of less known and more atavistic Sicily. To literally offer them stimuli and inspirations to be channeled later within their own created works ad hoc after having breathed in that new world for them and then exhibited subsequently, to bring the project to an end, in a different collective exhibition. Important for young artists, but also important for the area. The last, from the title Cups of stars in the circle of the sun (from the verses of the Arab-Sicilian poet Ibn al-Qatt), closed on 17 July last year in Palermo in the spaces of Palazzo Abatellis.

On the death of Vito Planeta the mayor of the Sicilian capital Alberto Lagalla also spoke: His untimely death – he declared – was a serious loss for the great family of Sicilian winemaking, but also for all the Palermo cultural world that he had animated. An eclectic and innovative entrepreneur.

But there was not only art in Vito Planeta’s universe. Within their schedule Local culturehad in fact invented it Sciaranuova Festival — we are in one of their cellars on the north side of Etna, among bunches of Nerello and Carricante — with theatrical performances in the vineyard. The writer said something beautiful about him (and, for those who knew him, also very true). Roberto Alajmo: Vito was a giant in the art of sprezzaturathat is the ability to hide one’s talent and culture, thus managing to make them shine even more.