Regional Institute of Wine and Oil

The winners of Sicilia Terra Mediterranea

Sicily seen through the eyes of foreigners. This is the theme of the international "Sicilia Terra Mediterranea" award, created by the Regional Institute of Wines & Oils of Sicily with the aim of underlining the value of foreign press, TV and web in promoting the image of Sicily's wine production.

Five categories, eight awarded journalists from different cities around the world. Through their works on wine-growing territories and personalities from the world of Sicilian wine spread between 1 January and 1 December 2011, the eight foreign journalists who received the award received the approval of the international jury. “Those works were awarded – explained during the ceremony, held on 16 January at the Piazza Borsa hotel in Palermo, the general director of the Institute, Dario Cartabellotta, as well as a member of the international jury – which managed to spread the essence and the identity of Sicily's wine, dismantling that stereotyped vision with which this land is unfortunately famous throughout the world. But not only that – he added – we can see that the internationalization of Sicilian wine is traveling at a rapid pace in historic markets such as France and Germany and enjoys strong visibility in emerging markets”.

Rossend Domenech, a historical figure of international journalism and dean of the Association of the Foreign Press in Italy, was called to preside over the jury's work. And then, Bruno Gambacorta of Eat Parade on Tg2, Carlo Ottaviano of Gambero Rosso, the food and wine expert Carlo Cambi, the award-winning Japanese Tetsuro Akanegakubo, the German Tobias Piller, president of the Foreign Press Association in Italy, the nutritionist and national president of Onav Giorgio Calabrese. Coordinator secretary of the project Alfredo Tesio, historic correspondent of the National Radio of Denmark. And here are the 8 winners: for the specialist press the German Veronica Crecelius; for the radio-TV category, the Polish Jacek Palasinsky and the German Kirstin Hausen; for the printed press the Romanian Tatiana Covor, the Lithuanian Jurgita Jukevicinie and the Serbian Milica Ostojic; for the web the Brazilian Gina Marques and for photography the French Eric Vandeville. And work is already underway for the 2012 award which will be dedicated to Sicily as a land of wine and oil. To participate, the works, produced between 1 December 2011 and 1 December 2012, must reach the organizing secretariat of the competition by 1 December 2012.