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Issue 658 - December 4th - 8th 2023 - Expressly created for 4642 wine lovers, professionals and opinion leaders from all over the world | |
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| | | Even Leo Messi, one of the greatest soccer champions of all time, with his 8 Ballon d’Or, the World Cup with Argentina and countless other titles, has his own line of wine. Produced by a Swiss company, but with all-Italian wines (from Prosecco to Primitivo, from Pinot Grigio to Nero d’Avola, among Doc and Igt wines from Puglia, Veneto and Sicily). Here, then, is the “Lionel Wine Club” and the “Lionel Goat 10 Collections” line. The effigy of the Argentine champion towers in the labels of all bottles, with the wines bottled by “MM Winemaker SA”, a company owned by the Maci family, based in Geneva, Switzerland, but with strong bonds with Puglia. | |
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| | International tensions, inflation, purchasing power put to the test a little everywhere in the world, but also changes in lifestyle, which see, at all latitudes, a reduction in the consumption of alcoholic beverages, and therefore also of wine, especially among young people, with a scenario that, overall, both in the short and medium term, for the nectar of Bacchus, is not so favorable. Extreme synthesis of a 2023 that, in these days, sees companies begin to draw financial statements. And, according to the Italian wineries, united in Italia del Vino Consorzio, which brings together 25 top-notch entities such as Angelini Wines & Estates, Banfi, Bisol 1542, Ca Maiol, Cantina Mesa, Cantine Lunae, Casa Vinicola Sartori, Di Majo Norante, Duca di Salaparuta, Ferrari Fratelli Lunelli, Gruppo Italiano Vini, Librandi Antonio and Nicodemo, Marchesi di Barolo, Medici Ermete & Figli, Ronchi di Manzano & C., Santa Margherita Gruppo Vinicolo, Tenuta La Palazza, Terre de La Custodia, Terredora di Paolo, Torrevento, Zaccagnini and Zonin1821, recently joined by Renzo Rosso and Arianna Alessi’s Diesel Farm, Tenimenti Leone of the Calzedonia Group and the Veronesi Family, and Nosio spa of the Mezzacorona Group. Businesses that put together an aggregate turnover of 1.5 billion euros, accounting for 15% of national wine exports, gathered in Rome (where WineNews collected interviews and comments with some of the protagonists, on video in the coming days). “There is a reduction in wine consumption all over the world, including Italy. In 2023, the turnover of the Italian wine industry”, explains a note from Italia del Vino Consorzio, led by Roberta Corrà, “is expected to experience its first decline since 2020: accounts will close at a loss of -2.9%, at 13.3 billion euros, of which 7.65 on the export side (-2.2%) and 5.61 on the domestic market side (-4%). This decline comes after a two-year period of growth (+26% in 2021 post-Covid and +6.6% in 2022, on which energy and material costs as well as inflationary dynamics strongly impacted)”. And market trends and demographics say one thing clearly: the wine-consuming world in the future will no longer build its growth on volume, but much more likely on the value expressed by wine bottles. | |
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| | Compagnia de’ Frescobaldi at no. 1, with sales in 2022 of 153 million euros and an ebitda of 60%, and a “rating” of 83.9 points, ahead, by just one decimal, of Antinori, with 323 million euros and an ebitda of 47%, and then again Santa Margherita, with a score of 82.1, sales of 260 million euros and a profitability of 35%, the Lunelli Group, with 72.1 points, 153 million euros in sales and an ebitda of 19%, and finally Argea, with 70.9 points, 455 million euros in sales and a margin of 15%: these are the “top 5” wine companies of “LeQuotabili” 2023, according to Pambianco (which, among small caps, also includes Vietti, Gruppo ColleMassari and Marchesi Mazzei), which each year selects the companies with the best fundamentals that make them suitable for listing on the stock exchange. At No. 1 overall is Sandro Veronesi’s Calzedonia Group (which also includes the wineshop chain Signorvino). | |
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| | | San Salvatore 1988, a pioneer winery in wine (but not only) and sustainability in Paestum, Campania, born from the dream of Giuseppe Pagano, and Petrolo, a wine gem in Tuscany, led by Luca Sanjust and a flagship of the Valdarno di Sopra DOC, which has long aspired to become Italy’s first “organic” appellation by specification: these are the two Italian wineries, honored with the “Robert Parker Green Emblem Award” 2023 by “The Wine Advocate”, which this year has 11 new entries, including “the Italian” Bodega Chacra, a winery created in Patagonia, Argentina, by Italian Piero Incisa della Rocchetta (grandson of Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, creator of Sassicaia, ed.). With San Salvatore 1988 and Petrolo joining, therefore, the other Italian wineries awarded in previous years: Alois Lageder, Tasca d’Almerita, Arianna Occhipinti, Avignonesi, Salcheto and E.Pira e Figli - Chiara Boschis. “The 2023 awards”, Monica Larner comments, to WineNews, “in addition to the companies, are above all for two people, Peppino Pagano and Luca Sanjust, ambassadors of their territories, Cilento and Valdarno, and of sustainability. And who also look at the evolution of a concept of sustainability that goes beyond organic, toward social. Two strong people who do a lot of work while also looking at the impact on the social fabric of their territories”. | |
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| | | From digital to physical store: Winelivery, a fast-track wine delivery specialist led by Francesco Magro, CEO & founder, has announced a significant capital raising of €3.5 million. To accelerate the company’s expansion with the new “Bar & Enoteca” format, and open more than 80 stores, but also to that finance the acquisition of a media company synergistic to the group’s activities. Objective? To reach 18 million in sales in 2027. | |
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| | South Tyrol is universally recognized as one of the territories from which the absolute best white wines are produced, in Italy and beyond. Thanks to leading wineries, such as Cantina Tramin, a reality that brings together 270 hectares of vineyards, led by 160 winegrowing families, which continues to invest on several fronts. On the “structural” one, so to speak, with an investment of 15 million euros to renovate the part of the cellar dedicated to the conferring and winemaking of grapes, with two steps planned, in 2024 and 2025. But also on the front of wine enhancement, and in particular of some labels, such as the very famous Epokale, a wine that ages inside the Ridanna Monteneve mine, and increasingly strong on the collecting market. | |
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| | Despite its difficulties, Italian wine remains the top star of the made-in-Italy agribusiness, and on its future there are those who continue to bet. Like Isa - Istituto Atesino di Sviluppo Spa, a holding company with more than 90 years of history and consolidated assets of 300 million euros, which has entered with a minority stake (from what WineNews learns not much below 50%) in the capital of F&F Fine Wines, one of the most promising realities in the market for the import of Italian wines to the U.S., Canada and Asia-Pacific with Ethica Wines, led by CEO Francesco Ganz. | |
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