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Issue 661 - December 25th - 29th 2023 - Expressly created for 4662 wine lovers,
professionals and opinion leaders from all over the world | |
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| | | Purchases down, but not in the horeca, prices increased and that will actually lead to an increase in value compared to a year ago and exports with lights and shadows. Sparkling wines arrive in their most “chic” moment, that of the holiday season, and the Center for Market and Consumption Analysis and Economic Observatory CevesUni, for the occasion, has released an initial analysis on estimates of consumption and purchases. The estimate is that 70-71 million “caps will be uncorked throughout the holidays with a consumer turnover of 712 million euros. We will drink less to greet 2024 with 35-38 million bottles (-8% over 2022). | |
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| | Falling prices, hidden gems, the wines that, in different vintages, have improved the most over time, the labels to invest in, the producers to follow most closely and more. There are many insights coming from the “Wine Leagues” 2023 analysis by Wine Lister, the famous English portal dedicated to fine wines (acquired in 2020 by Groupe Figaro). Which, to begin with, looked at price trends. And if 2023 did not shine, in 10 years Burgundy makes +371%, followed by the two most important Italian regions when it comes to great wines, namely Piedmont (+313%) and Tuscany (+245%). Which, according to Wine Lister, have also defended themselves in this 2023, with +2%, with Italy the only country in the positive, on the price front, behind Spain (+5%). Also under the lens are the labels that grew the most, in quantity, according to the “Quality Score”: to have increased the most, in percentage, overall, is Cupano’s Brunello di Montalcino (with a rating increase close to +15%), on the podium along with the Barolo wines of Giacomo Borgogno e Figli, and Luigi Oddero’s Vigna Rionda, and then with rating increases between +5% and +10%, in order, Domenico Clerico’s Langhe Arte, Tenuta Sette Ponti’s Oreno, Lisini’s Brunello di Montalcino, Cordero di Montezemolo’s Barolo Vigna Enrico VI and Giacomo Fenocchio’s Barolo Villero. Among the “memorable wines”, on the other hand, according to more than 50 managers and heads of companies involved in fine wines around the world, are two of the most famous names in Brunello di Montalcino, namely Biondi Santi, with the 1999 and 2008 Riserva, and Soldera Case Basse, with the 1993 and 2019 vintage, while the “dream cellar” includes Giacomo Conterno’s Barolo Monfortino Riserva, particularly with the 2002 vintage. The “value picks” include, instead, Pelissero’s Barbaresco, Azelia’s Barolo Bricco Fiasco and Renato Corino’s Barolo Arborina, while the “buzz brands” include Masseto, Sassicaia, Soldera and G. B. Burlotto, and the “hidden gems” include Fenocchio, Elio Grasso, Produttori del Barbaresco and Pieropan. Again the “must buy” wines, in which to invest: from Castello dei Rampolla to Fontodi, from Masseto to Antinori’s Tignanello, from Conterno to Vietti, from Isole and Olena (of the Epi Group, like Biondi-Santi) to Castello di Ama. | |
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| | Put together a plant neurobiologist, Stefano Mancuso, an engineer former team principal of the Ferrari F1 team, Mattia Binotto, a Master of Wine, Andrea Lonardi, an eclectic professor of viticulture, Attilio Scienza, and an anthropologist, Paolo Scarpi, to reason about the fundamentals of their fields. Shake it all up and you get the “multidisciplinary contaminations for a necessary evolution” of the “wine to come”. This is how Uva Sapiens, a consulting company in the wine sector, founded by Mattia Filippi, Umberto Marchiori and Roberto Merlo, wanted, on its 10th anniversary, to make a contribution to the vision of the future of wine, with a conference (“The wine to come. Multidisciplinary contaminations for a necessary evolution”, in recent days, at the Castello di San Salvatore in Susegana-Treviso), in which vine and wine were seen from different angles (in more detail). | |
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| | | Modification of DOC production specifications, including resistant grape varieties and rules for sustainability aimed at obtaining certification from the state. These are the urgent actions needed to adapt wines to the new requirements related to climate change, sustainability and the new organoleptic profiles demanded by the market, outlined by Attilio Scienza - among the leading experts in viticulture and professor at the University of Milan - in his capacity as chairman of the Doc Wines Committee, in his speech at the conference, organized by Uva Sapiens, a consulting company in the wine sector. “Is a DOC today myth or reality? From here we have to start to understand what vocation means today. Quality can be achieved everywhere, it has become a prerequisite. We must return to the original values of terroir vocation, to authenticity, understood as the ability to interpret the territory with a wine. In the past, terroirs had only one wine, and that is how it should go back to being. Today there are docs where 10-20 wines are made: only one is authentic the others serve to broaden the offer to cover all occasions of consumption. “Truth” is the word that defines the value of a terroir”, Scienza explained (his reflections in more detail). | |
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| | | And now artificial intelligence will provide access to the fine wines market, enabling everyone, even novices, to “create their own fine wines collection”. So promises eWibe, the live marketplace for fine wines, which is launching a “virtual wine advisor” capable of “creating an optimized, diversified and high-potential portfolio of wines, taking into account a number of parameters provided by the user such as budget, preferred regions, vintages and bottle format”. Thanks to “historical” data, real-time information and more. | |
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| | Without a doubt, Chianti Classico and Etna, in recent years, are two of the Italian territories that have grown the most. And a small confirmation, yet another, of this growth, also comes from the unique “Top Wines of 2023” compiled by Sotheby’s, made by the team of the physical wine store of the famous auction house in New York, with the best-selling and most beloved wines proposed by the public in 2023. They include, alongside big-name labels such as Chateau LynchBages’ 2009 Bordeaux and 2010 Chateau d’Armailhac, Cune’s 2016 Gran Reserva from Rioja, Dominus’ 2019 Napanook Napa Valley, Kistler’s Russian River Valley Pinot Noir 2020 or Krug’s Grand Cuvée 170 edition Champagne, Fontodi’s Chianti Classico 2019, one of the Black Rooster’s iconic wineries, figures prominently, as does, on Etna, Girolamo Russo’s Etna Bianco Nerina 2022. | |
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| | Caviro, Italy’s leading group in terms of market share in the wine sector (with brands such as Tavernello and Castellino, but also Leonardo da Vinci, Cesari, Romio and more) with 11,000 winemaking members and 37. 200 hectares of vineyards and producer of 8% of all Italian grapes, as stated on the Group’s website, closed the 2022-2023 fiscal year with consolidated sales of 423 million euros, slightly up on the previous year and with stable financial ratios (Ebitda at 33.2 million euros, NFP at 74.3 million euros). | |
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