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Issue 371 - June 2nd - 8th - Expressly created for 11.897 wine lovers,
professionals and opinion leaders from all over the world |
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Zachys auction held in Hong Kong collected 85.6 million Hong Kong dollars (11 million US dollars) in just two days (June 1st - 2nd). In addition to the great French wines, the Italian superstar wines were Solaia 2015 “en primeur”, which was listed at 74.100 Hong Kong dollars for one case (and it was only one of the Antinori family’s numerous “ex cellar” lots, including Solaia, Tignanello, Guado al Tasso, Cervaro della Sala and Brunello di Montalcino Riserva of Pian delle Vigne, and this selection overall yielded 1.3 million dollars), and Masseto, comprised of three lots of 12 bottles each (vintages 2007, 2008 and 2013) sold for 116.850 Hong Kong dollars each. |
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It is the most coveted and most competitive market, the one that guarantees the best growth margins in the next few years, but it is also the largest and most complex one. China is Italian wine’s target, which clearly has trailed behind competitors such as France and Australia, but now it is in full swing, on all sides. The numbers confirm it, too. The Italian wine market share rose from 4.93% in 2015 to 7.03% in the first quarter of 2018, thanks to an increase of +62.82% over the previous quarter. But what is even more extraordinary is the evolution of the average price, which increased from 3.63 dollars per liter in 2015 to 4.72 dollars in 2017, in contrast with the rebates that instead affected imports from the rest of the world. So, what is behind this rather extraordinary evolution? In a word: promotion. Many venues and organizations have implemented promotions, from Vinitaly to Slow Food, Gambero Rosso, Federvini, Uiv and Federdoc, but being able to bring everyone’s single efforts together, a huge amount of investments and an infrastructure capacity that no one else can boast, is ICE, the agency for the promotion of Made in Italy abroad, directly from the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. It has a central directive role as the ICE Beijing director Amedeo Scarpa, reiterated with pride to WineNews, “Made in Italy exports to China grew 22.2% last year, so we are talking about almost a quarter increase in value. Record values”, pointed out Scarpa, “have been recorded by both agri-food as a whole (+18%) and wine +63% in the first quarter of this year”. The investments are bearing fruit, then, looking at the data. “The merit”, continued the ICE director of Beijing, “is due to a multilevel approach, which involved training Chinese promoters of Italian wine, communication, especially on the web, and sales promotion, since Italian food and beverage have shown a boom on the shelves of Chinese chain stores”. In other words, there have been many initiatives on the field, and at least one certainty, “for a small country like Italy, a system is the only way to make the difference in China”. |
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“Perhaps people have not really grasped that when we started Terra Madre with Slow Food in 2004, we were present in 46 countries, today it is 160, thanks to food not as a closed circle, but open to the communities. The word for our future is at the center of the Chengdu Conference manifesto in China: community. In times of crisis, communities are able to regenerate the political and social tissues with a passion that politics forgets, accepting great challenges because they have affective certainty, mutual solidarity and are founded on the sharing of food, leading people to be active individuals even without having political roles. This is politics with a capital P”. These are the words Slow Food’s founder Carlin Petrini spoke, at the launch of Terra Madre Salone del Gusto 2018 (Turin, September 20-24). |
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In 2018, the wine sector in Italy will increase by +1.8%, and yield an export turnover that is expected to close the year at +3.4%. These are the forecasts that emerged from UniCredit’s “Industry Book 2018”, which estimates the turnover of the wine sector, and that in 2017, was around 11.3 billion euros. Further, according to the financial institute, sparkling wines are the driving segment, which is thanks above all to the excellent performance of Prosecco whose exports grew +11.6%, though it seems the trend should fall to +10% in 2018. The prospects are even better, however, if we consider that in 2016, a study by SACE, the public limited company of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (savings & loan), estimated the wine sector could increase its exports almost 30% in three years, redirecting its sales on foreign markets with greater potential for growth in demand. Which ones? Mainly, according to the UniCredit study, in pole position still wines in China, where sales are expected to increase 25.5%, Canada (+12.5%) and the US (+9.1%); for sparkling wines, Switzerland, which should register +33.9% over the same period, the United Kingdom (+31.8%) and Canada (+31.1%). |
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On July 2nd in Rome, at the Wine Culture Forum of the FIS - Italian Sommelier Foundation, the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella will be present. This is a clear signal of the institutions’ attention to Italian wine. It confirms Mattarella’s sensitivity towards the wine sector that has never failed. In 2016, for the 50th edition of Vinitaly, he inaugurated the event, and more recently, he himself honored the first President of the Italian Republic, and wine producer, Luigi Einaudi, during his visit to the Poderi Einaudi Estate. |
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The 73rd Assoenologi Conference (in Trieste, July 5th to 8th) will not be only about science and research, but also the communication of the wine culture and markets, hosting the personalities that have spread the knowledge of wine and Italian food in the world, from Carlo Petrini to Angelo Gaja, and the experts of Italian wine’s main markets, from China to the UK, the USA, Switzerland, Germany and Italy. The Targa d’Oro award for communication, given in the past to names such as Soldati and Veronelli, was given to the editor of WineNews, “you communicate wine, at varying levels every day”, stated the president of Assoenologi, Riccardo Cotarella. |
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150.000 liters of generic white wine, sold, or better “passed off” in 5-liter boxes labeled as Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi DOC. The scam, however, was foiled thanks to the warning sign that came from the Istituto Marchigiano di Tutela Vini (IMT) led by Alberto Mazzoni. Meaning that the control system works, when the Consortiums also work well. |
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