Dario Costanzo is the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of Winery Tasting Sicily, an online wine tourism portal in Sicily that advises customers where to drink and eat well, often also in the Etna area, a major wine and food tourism center internationally.
Dario manages web marketing, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), SEM (Search Engine Marketing), Social Media and more. He loves to play beach volleyball and spend evenings with his wife and friends, possibly tasting a good wine! I recently interviewed him for my volcanic wine marketing and export project.
When and how did the Winery Tasting Sicily project begin?
Winery Tasting Sicily was born to promote enotourism in Sicily through transmitting knowledge of the wines produced by Sicilian wineries. We recommend where to taste good wine, from restaurants to wine bars. We want to let people discover Sicilian terroir by giving them the opportunity to visit the cellars, vineyards, palmenti and ancient lava stone terraces. This is because we believe it is essential to meet producers, peasants, workers, agronomists, women and winemakers from volcanic regions. The project was born in April 2017. I was involved in web marketing for a winery. We noticed that we received requests for wine tourism but also that we could not answer the demand very often, because the winery was not always open. However, having bigger and more structured wineries with more staff, I thought: why not mapping all the wineries and thus let tourists access useful information? From this idea the project was born.
What services do you offer and who are your main customers?
We want to communicate particularly with winelovers. We offer tastings, news and events, but above all we want to describe the terroir of every area in Sicily.
What activities do you do in volcanic areas?
Activities in volcanic areas include trekking, skiing, honey tasting, cheese tasting, traditional preparation of granita, visit to pistachio fields with tasting, horseback riding in the vineyards, preparation of sausages and typical desserts and cooking lessons.
What kinds of tourists participate in your tastings?
From classic groups traveling with tour operators to groups of wine lovers. Tourists who find us are usually wine lovers who want to visit Sicily or they are on holiday and want to spend a day immersed in the nature of the volcano.
Do you think there has been a growth in tourism in the Etna area in recent years?
I think at this moment there is a movement towards Etna, especially as far as the terroir is concerned, also given the last frosts in France that have done many damages.
What are your projects for the future?
For now the project is in a start-up phase. In the future we want to manage better social media and do e-commerce.