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Issue 681 - May 13th - 17th 2024 - Expressly created for 4779 wine lovers,
professionals and opinion leaders from all over the world | |
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| | | The Della Gheradesca family boasts twelve centuries of very important presence in the Bolgheri area, made a place of great agriculture first and great wine, by others, but on much of the land owned by the Della Gherardesca. A history, that of the Della Gherardesca, intertwined with that of great historic wine families, but never ended up in the bottle and on the label. Until now at least, because now, thanks to the collaboration between Prosit Group, led by Sergio Dagnino and Count Gaddo della Gherardesca, this new chapter of wine history opens, between Bolgheri and Montalcino (in more detail). | |
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| | History always has its weight, and that of the Chianti Classico Consortium is 100 years long even if the origins of the “myth” start farther back, from the proclamation of the Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo III de’ Medici delimiting the Chianti Classico production area (1716), to the invention of the “perfect formula” by Bettino Ricasoli in the Castle of Brolio in 1872. And here we come to the present, with the “secular” celebration of Italy’s oldest consortium, between past and future (with the dream of Unesco), in Florence, in an event-comparison between personalities from some of the most prestigious wine territories in the world (in more detail): from Burgundy, with Thiébault Huber, president Confédération des Appellations et des Vignerons de Bourgogne, to Champagne, with Maxime Toubart and David Chatillon, co-presidents Comitaté Champagne, from Douro, with Gilberto Igrejas, president Port and Douro Wines Institute, to Oregon, with Morgen McLaughlin, director Williamette Valley Wineries Association & Wine Foundation Oregon, and to Barolo, with Matteo Ascheri, outgoing president Consorzio Barolo Barbaresco Alba Langhe Dogliani. And who, led by “Corriere della Sera” deputy editor Luciano Ferraro, traced a “common thread”, declined in their territories, on sustainability. Which will be increasingly central to Chianti Classico with the novelty of the Sustainability Manifesto “which our winemakers will embrace and make alive and active”, said Consortium President Giovanni Manetti, and which expresses the vision of a sustainable Chianti Classico both as a business system and as a means of protecting the land. After all, it is a “unique combination of the land, its wonderful fruits and the tireless work of the winemakers”, for the Minister of Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida, which, reiterated Piero Antinori, honorary president Marchesi Antinori, “we have a responsibility to maintain: we must protect this beautiful landscape because it is based on the harmony between man and nature”. And while critics too, stressed Monica Larner, Italian Reviewer “The Wine Advocate - Robert Parker”, want to tell the world more and more about “wines that have a soul, in which quality plays a fundamental role and is closely linked to the protection of the environment, but also to business management with a holistic approach”. | |
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| | The Prosecco-Prosek querelle closes once and for all, with a victory for Veneto bubbles: “this name is ours and no one will ever be able to use it in Europe as a “traditional mention” to indicate a wine that wants to evoke our bubbles, but has nothing Veneto about it. The new European Regulation on IG Geographical Indications, therefore, puts an end to an unpleasant affair, and this result is the result of teamwork between institutions, associations and consortia that in all venues have defended not only a brand, but a wine that expresses the history and identity of the Veneto region”: thus the President of Veneto, Luca Zaia, about the publication of the text of the EU Regulation in the European Official Journal, which definitively limits the misleading use of the name Prosek on Croatian labels or those of any other member state. | |
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| | | Remaining markedly positive, at least in the first two months of 2024, is the performance of Italian wine exports, which, globally, touched 1.14 billion euros, at +9.5% over the same period 2023, for 297.6 million liters, at +8.2%. From the Istat data updated today and analyzed by WineNews, the United States, at +5.9%, for 278.5 million euros, as well as Germany, at +3%, for 174.8 million euros, and especially the United Kingdom, over +20%, for 108.8 million euros, are on positive ground. One of the very few and restrained negative signals comes from Switzerland, at -2.8%, with 58.8 million euros of Italian wine imported in the first two months of 2024, while Canada grows sharply, at +13.1%, for 54.3 million euros. Russia is impressive, at +120%, for 47 million euros, outpacing France, although up 4%, at 40.4 million euros. The Netherlands, at +15.5%, for 37.1 million euros, does very well, and Belgium, at +2.7%, for 35.2 million euros, also stays in positive ground. It leaves something on the ground in Sweden, at -1.8%, to +30.3 million euros. In the East, Japan continues to grow robustly, at +11% to 28.7 million euros, and China continues to show positive signs, at +43% to 12.8 million euros. | |
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| | | The falling in love between Americans and Tuscany knows no crisis: this is demonstrated by the millionaire production that has chosen one of the most beautiful wineries in the Brunello di Montalcino area. At Argiano, an estate owned by Brazilian entrepreneur André Santos Esteves and led by Bernardino Sani, whose Brunello has been chosen by the famous U.S. magazine “Wine Spectator” as the best in the world in 2023, these days there are George Clooney and Adam Sandler, engaged in the filming of the movie “Jay Kelly”, as anticipated in recent days by the site MontalcinoNews. | |
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| | Looking straight to the future, strong with a great past behind it: Marchesi Antinori, the oldest family in Italian wine, becomes a shareholder in VitiBot, a leader in futuristic vineyard machinery and part of the Sdf Group, the world’s leading manufacturer of specialized tractors and machinery for viticulture. Antinori has already begun using these electric robots for soil management in vineyard inter-rows, and will share its centuries-old know-how with VitiBot for project development and optimization, charting the way for cutting-edge vineyard management in Italy. The new collaboration thus marks a significant milestone in the company’s evolution, underscoring its commitment to increasingly sustainable and innovative viticulture.
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| | According to an analysis by the Uiv-Unione Italiana Vini Observatory based on Istat, 29.4 million wine consumers in Italy are confirmed in 2023, stable on 2022, while daily consumers drop to 11.7 million, 400,000 less on 2022, with the balance of wine consumed in Italy amounting to 23 million hectoliters. Over the past 12 years, in general, Italians have not given up wine (+2% users over 2011), with new consumers represented today with a more responsible and aware, but less exclusive, relationship with wine. | |
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