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Issue 489 - September 7th - 11th 2020 - Expressly created for 11.897 wine lovers,
professionals and opinion leaders from all over the world |
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Today in London a piece of the history of wine from Italy and the world will be auctioned: it is the day of “Enoteca Pinchiorri: The Legendary Cellar”, the auction with which the most important wine auction house in the United States, Zachy’s, has decided to make its debut in Europe, news reported in recent days in preview by WineNews and which then went around the world. Under the hammer there is a catalog of 864 lots, for a total of 2,500 bottles (out of the more than 100,000 of Pinchiorri’s cellar, editor’s note) - and a value, in terms of auction base, of 2 million euros - all coming from the anthological cellar that Giorgio Pinchiorri has built from 1972 to the present day. |
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If one of the most popular slogans, in times of pandemic, is “everything will go well”, more realistically, perhaps, it is appropriate to say that, at least for now, everything has not gone badly. At least in terms of wine exports, looking at Istat data, on the first 6 months of 2020, just updated. According to the Institute, the drop as expected has arrived, but in a rather contained way for now, given that there is talk of a -3.4% in value over the same period 2019, with shipments of wine from Italy to world markets that have stopped at 2.9 billion euros. Despite a loss of -3.6%, the Veneto region confirms itself by far the locomotive of the Italian wine country, given that wine worth 1 billion euros has left the region, just over a third of the total. There was also a slight drop in the reference regions such as Piedmont (-2.1%, at 469 million euro), Tuscany (-4.2%, at 454 million euro). An overall figure that, as pointed out by the most diverse analyses, to date is the result of a year’s sprint start especially in the USA and UK - on the one hand, for the fear of duties on wine that until now, at least for the Belpaese, the United States has not produced, on the other hand, for the fear of a Brexit that in its details is still being defined - whose growth has been inevitably and remodeled by the growth of the Covid-19 emergency around the world, which has severely affected the catering industry in every country. An emergency that is far from over, and which will make things complicated in the months to come. The difficulties, also highlighted by an analysis of the Fondazione Qualivita, were found mainly in Asian markets (-21.4%), while the countries of Europe (-2.0%) and America (-1.0%) held up better. Among the main target markets, the United States recorded -1.7%, while Germany maintained stable levels (+0.3%), but followed by the United Kingdom and Switzerland had significant decreases, respectively -9.6% and -9.8%. Among the non-EU markets, Japan (-16.5%), Russia (-11.4%) and China (-41.7%) are particularly affected, with the latter returning to cover a very small slice of Italian wine exports (1.3%). In terms of quantity, exports made in Italy in the first half of the year dropped only by -0.4% compared to the same period in 2019, which shows a general drop in average prices. |
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Support measures must be revised to sustain winemakers and wine artisans, who are the ones that will pay the heaviest price due to the COVID-19 emergency. It will take a long time to get over the crisis. And we will know the real impact only at the end of this year, when balance sheets are drawn up. It is an extraordinary situation, which calls for extraordinary measures. For instance, a massive distillation plan that includes Do and IG wines, which are suffering the most. And in all probability, for the next 2-3 years, many wineries around the world will have excess production, so that there will be an enormous tension on international markets as we have never before seen. These are, in a nutshell, the considerations and criticisms on the period that Italian wine, and not only, is experiencing, signed by Angelo Gaja, one of the most influential, expert and revered Italian producers. |
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Mundus Vini, one of the longest-running international wine competitions on the international scene, and one of the most authoritative in a strategic market like Germany (signed by the German group Meininger), in its summer edition, once again crowns Italy. 552 awards for Italy, followed by Spain (320 awards), Germany (282), France (112). For the Belpaese, in particular, the Cantina Tollo, among the reference names of Abruzzo, awarded as “Best Italian Winery” with a total of 34 award-winning labels (17 gold and 17 silver), but also great brands of Italian wine. Among the best wines of the Competition, Best of Show of their types, there are the Amarone della Valpolicella Valpantena 2017 by Bertani, the Brunello di Montalcino 2015 by Tenuta Il Poggione, the Chianti Classico 2018 Tenuta Sant’Alfonso by Rocca delle Macìe, and again the Lighea 2019 by Donnafugata. Among the curiosities, also the award as the best importer to Ges Sorrentino, one of the main importers of Italian wine in Germany (with realities ranging from Guido Berlucchi to Tommasi Family Estates, from Bertani Domains to Schiopetto, from Suavia to Librandi, from Torrevento to Donnafugata, from Cantina Tollo to Marchesi di Barolo, from Cantine Leonardo Da Vinci to Garofoli, to name a few). |
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The internationally renowned Italian researcher and virologist Ilaria Capua, the mountaineer with extraordinary achievements and strenuous defender of the mountain Reinhold Messner (and wine producer, in South Tyrol), the entrepreneur pioneer of environmental sustainability Andrea Rigoni of Rigoni di Asiago, Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and a reality that over the years has spread the culture of quality wine through its glasses, such as Riedel Glass: here are the winners of the Masi Prize No. 39, promoted by the Masi Foundation. |
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193,800 pounds: this is how much has been collected from the online auction, beaten by Sotheby’s, with 12 large-format lots of Ornellaia Vendemmia d’Artista 2017 “Solare”, made by Argentinean artist Tomás Saraceno, internationally famous for his interactive installations that propose, in an era of ecological turmoil, new sustainable ways of living our planet. At the top of the list, as planned, is the lot dedicated to the only Salmanazar (9 liters) in the collection, awarded for £42,700. The proceeds will be donated once again to the Mind's Eye program of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation (297,000 euros the total value of the donation), thus adding to the over 2 million euros that in 11 years the project has donated to over 10 different institutions in the art world. |
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For some Italian wine denominations, the harvest has come to an end, and it is already time for a balance sheet. This is the case for Pinot Grigio delle Venezie, one of the largest denominations in Italy, which, with the harvest almost over, counts smaller quantities in 2019 (between -15 and -20%), but grapes of excellent quality, and growing price lists (+20%), as well as bottling between January and August (+6.3%). What is most comforting is the rise in prices, one of the well-founded objectives of the birth of the Doc.
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