Optimists proved right as mediocrity loses its grip.

(From Off Licence News)

Tutti colpevoli, nessuno colpevole" is one of my favourite Italian sayings. In a land where the law is regularly flouted or just plain ignored, the idea that if "everyone is guilty, no one is guilty" is a wonderful, shoulder-shrugging way of avoiding personal responsibility. The words could be applied in a vinous context too, particularly in Sicily, an island which is still a major contributor to the EU's murky wine lake. Why bother making decent wine if everyone else has accepted subsidised mediocrity? That maxim was ringing in my head as I sat down to have lunch with Diego Planeta. If anyone in the Sicilian wine industry can be credited with changing the fortunes of the so-called "isola del vino", of choosing optimism over pessimism, it is Planeta. Over the past 20 years, his influence has been huge, both through the example of his own, eponymous winery and through his work as chairman of Settesoli, Europe's largest co-operative.

Listening to Planeta is like getting a concise history lesson. He says that in 1985 Sicily was in a mess: " Bulk white wine, distillation problems, open warfare with producers from the south of France and endless discussions about how to get more money out of the EU." There were a handful of good producers on the island, such as Corvo, …