We are honored that the 5th May 2015 the Board of Directors of CERVIM, after a full review of our Company, has decided to include SantaMariaLaNave, and our white wine Millesulmare of Grecanico dorato vines, amongst its members. CERVIM is an international organism, created in 1987 under the auspices of O.I.V., Organisation Internationale de la Vigne et du Vin. Many regions and regional organisms joined this Center, all brought together by their common interest in promoting and safeguarding mountain viticulture.
The headquarters of CERVIM are located in Aosta Valley. This Center is active in the promotion of studies, researches and conventions, assuring its presence at all the international and sectoral forums treating issues related to viticulture, in order to guarantee the interests of viticulture on mountains and on steep slopes.
Features of the represented viticulture
The common features of the zones that have joined CERVIM, on which the identification of “heroic viticulture” is founded, are the following:
- Orographic conditions obstructing mechanization
- Small sized vineyards, not always adjoining and often with terracing area
- Agricultural companies with a restrained business area, prevalence of farmers who don’t exercise their main activity
- Need for heavy economic investments when reconverting to a modern form of viticulture
- Not always optimal weather conditions (water requirements, extreme temperatures, etc.)
- Various kind of grapes and an enological productions outside international models (niche products)
- Vineyards located in geographical areas of high naturalistic and touristic value
CERVIM’s focus includes viticulture on small islands, characterized by structural difficulties (for example salinity, impossible mechanization), by a permanent isolation and by a penalizing structural and social-economic contest from the point of view of profitability.
CERVIM gathers regions that have in common the so-called “heroic viticulture”, due to their peculiar environmental and working conditions. This marginal form of viticulture represents less than 5% of the overall European wine producing areas, but it has important implications for the economy, the society, the environment and the culture of many regions and countries.
Partners of CERVIM are those regions presenting on their territory a mountain viticulture or similar, as Aosta Valley, Lombardy, Piedmont, Liguria, Sicily, the Autonomous Province of Bolzano, the Autonomous Province of Trento, the Canton of Valais in Switzerland, Galicia in Spain, Douro in Portugal, and Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany.
Other regional organism have joined CERVIM too, representing the Abruzzo region in Italy, Wachau and Styria in Austria, Banyuls-Collioure and Rhônes-Alpes in France, and Appalachian State in North Carolina in the USA.
On our side, we will do all we can to continue to spread information on heroic viticulture and safeguard it.