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Issue 643 - August 21st - 25th 2023 - Expressly created for 4.559 wine lovers, professionals and opinion leaders from all over the world | |
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| | | Every month we analyze and delve into the secondary market trends of fine wines through data from Liv-ex, a benchmark index and channel through which thousands of trades and exchanges, among its 620 members, pass every day. Purchases and disposals, however, are not the only criteria for understanding the interest growing, or waning, around a label. Another excellent tool, in this sense, are the searches made on the Liv-ex website by its own members, from which it emerges that, in the first half of 2023, on the podium of “most searched”, sit Château Lafite Rothschild, Tenuta San Guido (Sassicaia) and Château Mouton Rothschild. | |
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| | The 2023 grape harvest, which began in the past few days between Sicily and Franciacorta, and slowly kicked off throughout Italy, and in a decidedly complicated overall picture, amid estimates of a drop in production due essentially to the effects of Downy mildew, and a market that, both domestically and in exports, does not shine, started with wineries that had a larger load of stock in their bellies on 2022. As of July 31, 2023, in fact, 44.5 million hectoliters of wine (+4.4% over 2022), 3.5 million hectoliters of musts (-8%) and 44,519 hectoliters of new wine still in fermentation (-12.9%) were dwelling in the cellar. This is according to the now customary bulletin “Cantina Italia”, prepared by the Central Inspectorate for the Protection of Quality and Fraud Repression (Icqrf), based on data contained in the computerized wine registers. Practically a winery harvest, at least according to Coldiretti’s forecasts (among the most optimistic of those issued to date), which predict wine production in 2023 at around 43 million hectoliters, at -14% over 2022. Following a well-established trend, the report points out that, more than half of the wine in stock is PDO (53.2%), and 26.6% Igt, with a clear prevalence of reds (53.9% for Denomination wines, 64.1% for geographical indication wines), with the top 20 PDO and Igp wines putting together 58.4% of stocks. As always, leading the quantitative ranking is Prosecco Doc, with 3.7 million hectoliters (10.4% of total PDO and PGI wines), followed by Igt Puglia (2.1 million hectoliters) by Doc Sicilia (1.4), Igt Salento (1.4), and again by Igt Toscana (1.3), Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (1.3) Igt Terre Siciliane (1.1) and Chianti (1.07 million hectoliters). A statistical picture that, in all likelihood, given the pitfalls of the 2023 grape harvest that is coming into full swing, and which will certainly be anything but generous, looks set to change considerably in the coming months, both at the overall level and in the specific weight of the different appellations. | |
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| | “This milestone, achieved also thanks to the Region of Tuscany, is a starting point, to develop the management, protection, and enhancement programs that Toscana Igt wines deserve”, said Cesare Cecchi, president of Consorzio Vini Toscana, which, as anticipated by WineNews, obtained recognition from the Ministry of Agriculture, representing 39.5% of producers and more than 58% of production. “An important result that concerns as many as 4,000 producers who claim Toscana Igt, contributing to the value of the brand “Toscana” at 360 degrees”, added the vice-president of the Region and Councillor for Agriculture, Stefania Saccardi. | |
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| | | If the wine market, in this first abundant half of 2023, has not shone, overall, there is no shortage of leading realities capable of doing significantly better than average. Like Schenk Italian Wineries, led by Daniele Simoni (in the photo) and the backbone of the Schenk Group (founded in Switzerland and capable of putting together 3,500 hectares of vineyards between Switzerland, France, Italy, and Spain and a proprietary sales network in Germany, Belgium, and the United Kingdom), which not only put up double-digit growth in the first half of 2023, with an aggregate turnover as of June 30 of 66.8 million euros (+14% over the same period in 2022), and a shipped volume of 21.9 million liters that raises 8.5% over 2022, but also put in place major investments with the acquisition of 37 hectares of organically managed vineyard in Salento for Tenute Masso Antico, adjoining the 70 already acquired in 2021 for the estate in Puglia, and 6 hectares destined for vineyards, yet to be planted, in Montepulciano, Tuscany, in Vino Nobile land, for Lunadoro, adding to the 12 hectares of vineyard already owned by the Poliziana estate (including 10 hectares in Sangiovese and 2 hectares in Merlot and Cabernet, out of a total of 45 hectares of land) acquired by Schenk in 2016. | |
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| | | A visit with a strong symbolic value to one of the most important cooperative groups in the Italian wine industry, testifying to the government’s closeness to all the businesses affected by the recent flooding in Emilia Romagna: Vice-Premier Antonio Tajani, with Minister Anna Maria Bernini, met at the Forlì headquarters with the top management of the Caviro Group, which represents 9,600 members, 24 wineries in 6 regions of Italy and 31,700 hectares under vine. “At Caviro”, said Tajani, “we discussed with entrepreneurs the measures already in place to compensate for damages”. | |
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| | The U.S. market, although showing some signs of difficulty, remains the first foreign partner as well as safe landing for the wineries of Italy. And many prestigious ones, as always, will be those selected in the list of the “Top 100 Wineries of 2023” by the magazine “Wine & Spirits”, among the most important in the USA for wine professionals: from Adami to Fratelli Alessandria, from Castello di Ama to Luigi Baudana, from Biondi-Santi to Elvio Cogno, from I Favati to Le Macchiole, from Ornellaia to Petrolo, from Pieropan to Pietradolce, from Rocca di Montegrossi to Sottimano, from Tasca d’Almerita to G. D. Vajra to Vietti, are the great Italian names selected by the magazine. Which on October 11, 2023, will be among the stars, along with many of the world's top brands, of the “Top 100 Tasting”, staged at Metreon in San Francisco. | |
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| | The Institute of Masters of Wine, the most authoritative and oldest organization dedicated to the knowledge and trade of wine welcomes a new Italian Master of Wine: Andrea Lonardi, born in 1974 in Valpolicella, with a degree in Agriculture from Bologna and a Master’s degree in Management Control from the Grande Ecole of Montpellier, an experience that opened the doors first to a collaboration with Washington State University, then to a long managerial career. At WineNews, the path and goals of the Coo of Angelini Wines & Estates. | |
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