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Issue 585 - July 11th - 15th 2022 - Expressly created for 4.370 wine lovers,
professionals and opinion leaders from all over the world |
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The ranking of the 100 best hotels in the world, once again a tourist destination for the international jet set, confirms how Italian wine and its territories make the entire trip memorable. The proof comes from an ancient village in the Tuscan countryside, surrounded by Brunello vineyards in the Unesco World Heritage Val d’Orcia, with a historic winery, in a mix of great wine production and top-notch hospitality: the Rosewood Castiglion del Bosco, 5-star luxury in Montalcino, No. 1 in “The 100 Best Hotels in the World” for “Travel + Leisure”, the first time that a top European hotel has been elected also “Best Resort” of Europe and Italy. |
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Italian wineries are aware that they need to invest more, especially in the vineyard, to cope with climate change, in human resources, which are essential to turn the business around, and in digitalization, to keep up with the changing world. But when we talk about wine companies, we are talking about very different realities, in terms of size, business model, territory and many other variables. And on closer inspection, looking at the fundamental parameter of profitability, it is those that are private and more capitalized in terms of vineyards and real estate that are better in this respect. This emerged at “Vino Vip Cortina 2022”, an event organized by the historic magazine Civiltà del Bere, from the analysis of the filed financial statements of 373 companies, 187 private and 186 cooperatives, signed by Luca Castagnetti (Studio Impresa), who plumbed the numbers of Italian wineries with turnover over 3 million euros, with homogeneous data from 2018 to 2021. “We set the median line of capitalization from a figure of 29.9%, categorizing as “light” those wineries below this parameter, and “strong” those above”, Castagnetti explains. Overall, the panel saw growths of more than 10% in revenues in both 2020 and 2021, with average ebitda coming in at 12.17% for private, holding steady at around 5% for cooperatives, with the industry average at 8.7%. But unbundling the data shows that the private and most capitalized, i.e., “strong” companies are clearly the ones with the highest ebitda, i.e., profitability, at 15.7% on average, and growth of +27% over 2020, and +19% over 2019. A clear signal, which becomes even more evident when looking at the small sample of the “50 top performers”, Castagnetti explains. “Here we reach a maximum profitability of 59%, with an average of 31.8%, in a sample that is 74% made up of “strong” private companies. And territorial differences emerge, because if 26% of these companies are in Tuscany and 20% are in Veneto, for example, revenues per employee in Veneto are 861,000 euros, in Tuscany 259,000. And then, there is the Bolgheri case: “here in fact”, Castagnetti explains, “there are only private and capitalized companies, with a profitability between 39% and 40%, which is a very high territorial figure”. |
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Only the Valpolicella wines, among the great Italian productions, were missing on the Place de Bordeaux. The latest arrivals, in fact, are Allegrini’s two crus - La Poja 2017 and Fieramonte 2015 - which will land on the Place in September. In recent months, Castellare di Castellina’s I Sodi di S. Niccolò, Michele Chiarlo’s Barolo Cerequio and Parusso’s Barolo had been welcomed by the French distribution system. Leading the way in 2008 was Masseto, followed by Ornellaia and Antinori’s Solaia, Tignanello and Cervaro della Sala. Then came Bibi Graetz’s Colore, Petrolo’s Galatrona, the flagship estate in Val d’Arno di Sopra by Luca Sanjust, and Caiarossa, as well as Orma and Oreno wines from Antonio Moretti Cuseri’s Tenuta Sette Ponti. In 2019 came Luce della Vite by Frescobaldi, followed by the first Etna Rosso, that of Giovanni Rosso, Barolo’s historic label. |
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Wine tourism is, and will be, a strategic asset for tourism and the Italian economy. But Italy will make a quantum leap only if it knows how to organize itself better than it has done so far, perhaps even equipping itself with a real permanent Observatory, as companies, operators and institutions would like. Meanwhile, taking stock of the state of the art is the volume “Journey in the Italy of Wine. Wine Tourism Observatory: regulations, best practices and new trends”, presented in recent days in the Senate in Rome, the result of the joint work of the Associazioni Città del Vino, Donne del Vino and Senator Stefàno (first signatory of the Wine Tourism Law, ed.) and contains the results of the Nomisma-Wine Monitor survey on 92 municipalities and 150 wineries. From which it emerges that, in Italy, 92% of companies offer wine tourism hospitality, 74% do it all year round, and on average this branch of activity accounts for 7% of turnover (the average receipt of the wine tourist is included in the 50-100 euro range, and only 18% of visitors spend more than 100 euros, ed.) This percentage doubles for businesses under 2 million euros in turnover and reaches 12% for those that reach 10 million euros. |
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The Associazione Italiana Sommelier has a new leader: Sandro Camilli, an Umbrian from Amelia in the province of Terni, has been elected president of Ais for the four-year period 2022-2026. At his side, to take up the legacy of Antonello Maietta, in the role of vice president, is Marco Aldegheri. “In the coming days”, Camilli commented, “I will announce the names of the members of the National Executive Council, to immediately start the program guidelines we have defined”. |
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Among the target markets for wine, including Italian wine, there is Sweden. The Scandinavian country, in 2021, imported 201 million euros worth of wine from Italy, 8% more than in 2020, a year marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, which did not affect consumption, thanks in part to the role of the state monopoly, Systembolaget, which is always careful to intercept new trends and ensure an adequate and balanced supply. Yet, according to “Wine Intelligence”, Sweden is showing the first signs of slackening or, worse, stagnation, typical of a market that seems to have reached its peak, and may struggle to grow from now on (in more detail). |
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In Italian cellars, as of June 30, 2022, 47.2 million hectoliters of wine and 4.6 million hectoliters of musts were stocked. As data from “Cantina Italia”, the report compiled by Icqrf, revealed, on June 30, 2021, the value of stocks was higher for both wines (+3.8 %) and musts (+20.7 %), while on May 31, 2022, stocks were down for both wines (-6.9 %) and musts (-12.8 %). 55% of the wine was held in northern regions, predominantly Veneto, 50.7% of wines were PDO, 27.9% PGI, and varietal wines made up 1.4% of the total. |
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