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Issue 716 - January 13th - 17th 2025 - Expressly created for 3888 wine lovers,
professionals and opinion leaders from all over the world | |
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| | | Italian wine is still growing in exports, staring at a new all-time record, while waiting for data from the end of 2024. Meanwhile, in the first 10 months of the year, overseas shipments of tricolor wines exceeded 6.74 billion euros, at +5.7% over the same period 2023, for 1.8 billion liters, up +3.6%. A trend that, if maintained in the last 2 months of the year, would bring the total over 8.1 billion euros. An increase in value linked mainly to sparkling wines, which touch the value of 2 billion euros (1.97), with a jump of +9.6%. This emerges from the latest Istat data, updated to October 2024, analyzed by WineNews. | |
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| | Among the main importing countries for Italian wine, according to Istat data as of October 2024, the U.S. is largely confirmed as the top partner market for Italian wineries, with +8.2% in the first 10 months of the year, which translates into €1.59 billion in value, but Germany’s figure is also growing, at €980 million, up +4.3%. The United Kingdom holds up, marking +1.8%, at 708 million euros. Canada is doing very well, up +18% to 385 million euros, while Switzerland gives up something, at -2% to 329.9 million euros, as does France, which stands at 261 million euros, a loss of -1.4%, while rising above 200 million euros, to 205 to be precise, is the Netherlands, with a +9.8% jump. Just a hair below, at 199 million euros, stops Russia, the protagonist of a growth in imports that has long jarred with the dynamics of a country at war, with an increase, in the first 10 months of the year, of +60%. Still, among the main markets, it leaves something on the ground Belgium, at -1.2%, to 185 million euros, while Sweden grows, by +2.9%, to 160 million euros. In the Asian bloc, on the other hand, the reference continues to be Japan, which in the first 10 months of 2024 imported Italian wines worth more than 157 million euros, up +3.6%, while it still loses China, which stands at 71 million euros, down -8.9%, while South Korea is practically stable, at 41 million euros (+1.8%). Comforting data and in many countries in different areas of the world, then, the aggregate ones, for Italian wine. Which, on the one hand, confirm the appeal and strength of a sector, but, on the other, should not make us lose sight of the difficulties that many companies are facing, in many respects, looking at important news that will come in strategic markets, such as the new excise system in the UK, which could greatly penalize “entry level” wines, the unknown about possible tariffs in the U.S., and possible stricter policies on the issue of alcohol consumption, in the world of healthism, which is being debated more and more insistently and concretely, worldwide. | |
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| | “In a context where the debate over alcohol consumption is more heated than ever, the choice to drink wine must be accompanied by critical awareness. If wine is consumed in moderation and appreciated for its intrinsic qualities, it can remain a significant part of gastronomic culture. The challenge for the future will be to educate consumers to make informed choices while ensuring the sustainability of the wine industry”. That’s the conclusion of a report on the topic of consumption, the relationship with health, the growth of dealcoholic wines and the revision of alcohol consumption regulatory policies, put down in black and white by Vincenzo Gerbi, professor at the University of Turin and vice president of the Italian Academy of Vine and Wine (in more detail). | |
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| | | From the end of the post-Covid euphoria to the decline in Champagnes, from a 2024 vintage that was complex to expectations for 2025, in which it will be necessary to think about new strategies and serious planning, without forgetting the big issues of the moment, from the decline in consumption among the new generations to the low and no-alcohol trend: some of the most important names in Italian high-end distribution - Cuzziol Grandivini, Gruppo Meregalli, Sarzi Amadé and Sagna - draw, for WineNews, a picture of the months that have just passed and those that lie ahead. Luca Cuzziol explains that 2025 will have to be approached by investing in strategy and business vision, so as not to witness the “perfect storm”. For Alessandro Sarzi Amadè, on the one hand, the post-Covid euphoria has died down and, on the other, prices have risen, and this has affected the general decline in Italian consumption outside the home. For 2025, Meregalli has introduced low and no-alcohol wines and spirits in its catalog, but it is pushing for a promotion of a conscious and moderate drinking culture during meals. For Leonardo and Carlo Alberto Sagna, the year was characterized by a swinging market environment, marked by profound changes and complex challenges, but also by opportunities for evolution. | |
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| | | American lawyer Michael L. Cioffi, already owner of Monteverdi Tuscany, a refined albergo diffuso in the heart of the Val d’Orcia, in the municipality of Sarteano, is the new owner of the Valdipiatta estate, one of the historical griffes of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, owned by the Caporali family since the 1980s, which remains in the company, with Miriam Caporali as managing director. “A strategic investment of more than 1 million euros and the expansion of the vineyards to celebrate 20 years of friendship and passion for the territory”, explains a note. | |
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| | The start will be on May 9, in Albania, then arrive in Italy, with a route that, starting from Puglia will cross Italy up to the Dolomites, and then celebrate the last stage in Rome. This is the route of the Giro d’Italia 2025, among the most internationally loved and followed cycling races, and which, in addition to the feasts of the champions of the pedals, will tell 700 million people around the world about the beauty, food and wine, agriculture and Italian wine. “Among the many stages, there are many moments that, in some way, will tell about the wine, but especially the stage between Gubbio and Siena, which will cross on the dirt roads the territories where Sangiovese dominates (among the vineyards of Montepulciano, Chianti Classico and touching Montalcino, ed.)”, comments, to WineNews, Pier Bergonzi, deputy director of the “Gazzetta dello Sport”. | |
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| | The year 2024 of Italian wine stocks closes with a figure slightly down on the end of 2023, but still with plenty of wine in the cellar. As of December 31, 2024, there were 56.9 million hectoliters of wine in stock in the cellars of Italy, -3.9% on December 31, 2023 . To this figure should be added 6.6 million hectoliters of must (+0.4% over the same period 2023) and 2.2 million hectoliters of new wine still in fermentation (+106.2%). This is stated in the latest report “Cantina Italia”, published by the Ministry of Agriculture. | |
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