La Segreta Il Bianco, Planeta, Sicilia 2023

The Planeta family has been one of the most dynamic influences in improving the quality of Sicilian wines in the last 30 years.

History
The late, great driving force of the company, Diego Planeta first planted vines in 1985, in his home town of Sambuca di Sicilia, and began commercial production under his own label in 1995. There are now 93 hectares of vines here, but Diego expanded his vineyard sites across the island, and the company now produces wines from six separate locations.

Planeta remains very much a family business, with seven children and 15 cousins, six of whom are fully involved in the business. Though the loss of Diego in 2020 was a blow, but Planeta is in good hands for the future.

The wines
The largest of these is a 120-hectare site in Menfi, where the soils are particularly well suited to growing fiano as well as international grape varieties like syrah. This is now the site of Planeta’s main winery, and for many years Diego was also president of the Settesoli co-operative here.

After settling in Menfi, Diego acquired 34 hectares of vines in the south-east at Vittoria, where he had long had land for growing tomatoes. Here the specialism is two native grape varieties, nero d’Avola and frappato. There are 51 further hectares of nero d’Avola further east at Noto, and more recently Planeta invested in six hectares on Etna, making sparkling and still carricante.

Environmental sustainability
Since 2021, Planeta’s entire operation has been under organic certification. In order to increase biodiversity, the estate also grows olives, almonds and cereals beside the grapes. The company has also installed 300m2 of solar panels which provides all the energy necessary for their Menfi wineries. Another winery, at Noto, was built in a natural cleft in the hills, which means it blends into the local scenery.

Social sustainability
Planeta is one of the founding members of a Sicily-specific sustainability organisation called SOStain Sicilia. This recognises that the impact of agricultural activities goes well beyond the boundaries of the fields being cultivated – they also impact the welfare of workers and the health of consumers, the involvement of local communities, the enhancement of the surrounding territory and the preservation of natural resource. Planeta is therefore focused on enhancing and protecting the social and cultural resources which contribute to the maintenance of Sicily’s wine-making tradition.