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Issue 704 - October 21th - 25th 2024 - Expressly created for 4854 wine lovers,
professionals and opinion leaders from all over the world | |
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| | | Franciacorta is the “International Wine Region of the Year 2024” for the “Wine Star Awards” by “Wine Enthusiast”, one of the most important awards given by the famous U.S. magazine (reserved for wine territories in the world, outside the States, ed.). An award that confirms the value of the path of a territory, its companies and its Consortium, led by Silvano Brescianini (3,000 hectares of vineyards, 123 wineries, 20 million bottles, and an estimated turnover of 500 million euros) and that, in just a few years, has been able to become a point of reference for the classic method sparkling wine industry in Italy and the world. | |
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| | In the U.S. market - which on the import side of Italian wine continues to function, despite everything (+7.3% in the first 7 months of 2024, over the same period 2023, for 1.12 billion euros, according to Istat data, analyzed by WineNews) - as in the rest of the world, with few differences, overall consumption is declining, especially to the detriment of red wines. But, in the States, according at least to the analysis of the Unione Italiana Vini and Vinitaly Observatory (on SipSource data, as of August 2024), “there is a segment bucking the decline of red wines: they are the luxury made in Italy, red labels from $50 and up (price at distribution), which, between January and August 2024, have put up a growth in value sales of 3% against a general performance of luxury products at -7%, with the French at -16% and the Americans in line with the market average”. This was said at the end of the institutional event Vinitaly.Usa (Chicago, October 20-21) by the Vinitaly & Unione Italiana Vini (UIV) Observatory analysis. “According to the monitoring of actual wine sales found by U.S. distributors, this is a surprising positioning, that of Italian top-of-the-range reds, which hold a nano-share of 2% on the volume of sales of Italian reds, but which, in value, represent 14% of Italian reds in the USA. This market share rises to 23% if super-premium reds (between $24 and $50) are included, compared to only 6 % of volume sales”, the Observatory explains. “Leading the way (almost absolute) in the luxury niche are Tuscan labels, responsible for 45.5% of the U.S. market for high-end made-in-Italy reds, growing 13% between January and August 2024. Pulling ahead is Brunello di Montalcino, the leading appellation with a 32% slice of the luxury reds market. They are followed at a distance in the regional ranking by the Bolgheri galaxy (11.5%) and Chianti Classico (2%). For Piedmontese nobles, Barolo (16%) earns second place overall, while Barbaresco (4%) is off the podium. In great difficulty, on the other hand, according to the Uiv-Vinitaly Observatory, wine areas that have so far driven the luxury segment, such as Bordeaux (-37%), Burgundy (-12%), Napa Valley (-24%)”. | |
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| | After years when wine seemed to be the new “eldorado” of financial investors, the euphoria of those who invested and invest their money in big bottles seems to be waning. It emerges by looking at the indices of the Liv-Ex, the industry's benchmark platform, which as 2024 passes, sees its performance becoming more and more negative, with no major exceptions. And so, the Liv-Ex 100, the platform’s main index comes in at -7% (-11% over the 12-month period). In the index in question, the best wines, in positive territory, include Gaja’s Barbaresco 2019 (+9.1% in 2024), and Solaia 2019 (+3.1%), around parity Masseto 2019, Sassicaia 2020 and Tignanello 2019. Even worse does the Liv-Ex 1000, the broadest of the platform’s indices, which loses -8.9% since the beginning of the year. Also bad is the Italy 100, which marks -4% in 2024, and -6.2% over the 12-month period. With some labels being exceptions (in more detail). | |
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| | | Alto Adige, too, an area among the most prestigious in Italy, especially for the production of excellent white wines (and with the value of vineyards that, in the area of Lake Caldaro, in particular, reaches even 900,000 euros per hectare, according to Crea), will have its Uga, the Additional Geographical Units. The Ministry of Agriculture, in fact, has given the official okay to the 86 Uga identified and documented down to the smallest detail, thanks to which “the South Tyrolean wine sector takes a further step”, explains the Consorzio Vini Alto Adige, led by president Andreas Kofler, and managing director Eduard Bernhar. Gries, Mazon, Eppan Berg or Brenntal, to give examples, the names of the Uga that in the future will be able to be indicated on the label together with the designation “Alto Adige Doc” (with a 25% reduction in yields, and only for wines made from the grape varieties indicated as best for that sub-area). A further step of growth for the enhancement of a territory from which 40 million bottles leave every year, which are sold mainly in the Horeca channel, and in many markets of the world, with the United States, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Uk and Sweden, for a 2023 turnover on 350 million euros, which, from the Consortium’s data, is expected to be confirmed also in 2024. | |
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| | | “Falstaff”, a leading magazine in food and wine communication, travel and design in German-speaking countries, has awarded the “Lifetime Achievement Award” to Marco Caprai, the architect of the rebirth of Sagrantino di Montefalco, and its territory, at the helm of the family winery, Arnaldo Caprai. “At 60 years old, Marco Caprai is certainly not at the end of his creative rope. But in the nearly 40 years dedicated to wine, he has accomplished something extraordinary”. | |
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| | Rosset Terroir’s Sopraquota 900 2022, from Valle d’Aosta; Bellavista’s Franciacorta Brut Teatro Alla Scala 2020, from Lombardy; Gualdo del Re’s Vermentino 2022 and Bolgheri Superiore Dedicato A Walter 2020 from Marilisa Allegrini’s Poggio al Tesoro, from Tuscany; Oasi degli Angeli’s Kurni 2022, from Marche; Anton Maria Coletti Conti’s Piglio Superiore PerEmilia 2022, Poggio Le Volpi’s Donnaluce 2023 and Colle di Maggio’s Lunapigra 2021, from Lazio; Il Poggio’s Aglianico del Taburno Safinos 2020, from Campania; and Palmento Costanzo’s Etna Rosso Prefillossera 2021, from Sicily: these are the 10 wines of the year that “you won’t forget” for “Bibenda” 2025, the guide of the Italian Sommelier Foundation (Fis), headed by Franco Ricci, chosen among the many awarded with “5 Grappoli” (list in more detail, the presentation on November 16, in Rome). | |
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| | Bertani’s Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2015, Casanova di Neri’s Brunello di Montalcino Giovanni Neri 2019, Valdicava’s Brunello di Montalcino Vigna Montosoli 2019, Terlaner Primo Alto Adige 2021 from Terlano, Petrolo’s Valdarno di Sopra Galatrona 2022, and Bibi Graetz’s Toscana Colore 2022: these are the 100/100 wines (which WineNews anticipated) from “The Best 100 Wines and Winemakers of Italy”, the guide of “Corriere della Sera”, edition no. 11, signed by Luciano Ferraro and James Suckling, presented on Friday October 25, in Milan. | |
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