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

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 …