On the fiftieth anniversary of the creation of the Prize, the Nonino Risit d’Aur wants to draw attention to the reasons for its birth and to the precious native Friulian vine varieties that in the 1970s were on the verge of extinction because their names were not included among the authorized vine varieties of the region. Giannola and Benito Nonino in 1975 establish the prize for vine growers and ampelographic studies, and begin the bureaucratic process to obtain the community authorization for the cultivation of Pignolo, Schioppettino and Tazzelenghe, joined by Ribolla gialla in purity. Authorization 486/78 which they obtain in 1978. For the 2025 edition, the Nonino Rist d’Aur prize is awarded to Ben Little and the Pignolo vine variety. Irish by birth and Friulian by adoption, Ben falls in love with the ancient Friulian black vine variety and devotes years of study and research to it, studies that he collects in the self-published book ‘Pignolo - Cultivating the Invisible’. In 2023, he founds the Association of Pignolo of Friuli Venezia Giulia, which, having more than 34 active members, is the largest association of winemakers in the region to unite the energies of winemakers, researchers and enthusiasts of the legendary Pignolo, to promote it, enhance it and make it known all the way to the heart of the Cité du Vin in Bordeaux and Napa Valley.

Michael Krüger, poet and novelist, was born in 1943 in Wittgendorf in Saxony-Anhalt, grew up in Berlin and lives in Munich. For many years he was the soul of Carl Hanser Verlag one of the most prestigious German publishing houses. He started working as a reader for the Munich publisher in 1968, and in 1986 he became its literary director, a position he recently left after a brilliant career that led him to include in his catalogue fourteen Nobel Prize-winning writers, including Joseph Brodsky, Derek Walcott and Tomas Tranströmer. He was the editor of the magazine “Akzente” as well as of Edition Akzente. He is a member of several academies, president of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts, and the author of several volumes of poetry, short stories, novels, and translations. A refined intellectual, Krüger has more than forty books to his credit, ranging from poetry, short stories, novels, literary criticism, and translations, including that of the poems of Cesare Pavese. His first volume of stories Was tun – one altmodische History (What shall we do – an old- fashioned story) was published in 1984. For his literary work, Krüger has published nearly two dozen books with poems, novels and stories, and has received many awards including the Peter-Huchel-Preis (1986), the Médicis Etrangers Prize in 1996 the Mörike-Preis (2006), the Joseph- Breitbach-Preis (2010) and the Cesare De Michelis Prize for publishing in 2023.

Dominique de Villepin, a diplomat, scholar and intellectual, is a noble voice of high moral value. Since the time of his historic speech at the UN Security Council in 2003, with his lucid and courageous interventions on the events that mark our time, from Ukraine to Israel, to Gaza and beyond, he makes clear, without violent polemic, the whole dramatic international situation. His is a vibrant appeal not to resign oneself to the inevitability of war and the use of force; an appeal to the duty of truth in the face of the terrible events unfolding in many places on the planet; a continuous appeal to the right and duty to know, and not to look the other way, and find a diplomatic way to resolve conflicts; a powerful appeal to a universal conscience capable of recognizing that the tragedy of some is the tragedy of all mankind; and finally an appeal to action, knowledge and conscience to recognize the humanity that unites us.

Dance expresses the most arcane voices of the earth. The Earth, whose preservation and care have always been the values of the Nonino Prize. Germaine Acogny is considered the mother of contemporary African dance. Africa, the ancestral parent of our human race. Taking her art all over the world with performances and founding schools. But when Madame Acogny dances on the shore or among forest trees her body becomes prayer. The Persian mystic poet Rumi wrote: whosoever knows the power of the dance dwells in God. Dance is divine joy and Germaine Acogny is dance.