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Issue 592 - August 29th - September 2nd 2022 - Expressly created for 4.376 wine lovers, professionals and opinion leaders from all over the world |
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It is the oldest and most prestigious fine wine distribution network in the world, and, in the last century, it was the engine of the international success of Bordeaux wines: today La Place is a hub capable of welcoming hundreds of producers and a network of 300 négociant, which sell in 170 countries around the world. A club for the few, which opened for the first time only in 1998, always accompanying the evolution of the fine wine market, which if until 2010 linked 95.7% of trade to Bordeaux wines, today looks carefully to Burgundy, Italy and even the USA, with iconic labels such as those of Masseto and Opus One, both marketed by La Place. |
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The Tenuta San Guido of the Incisa della Rocchetta family, with its Sassicaia, a world-famous wine, one of the most sought after and loved Italian labels ever, at the turn of the seventies of the 1900s, contributed in a crucial way in creating a territory, that of Bolgheri, which before, in fact, did not exist oenologically, and in relaunching the image of Italian wine all over the world. Thanks to the flash of genius of Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, built over years of dreams and research, and with the decisive contribution of Giacomo Tachis, who in an almost unknown piece of Maremma, produced a Bordeaux blended wine, which arrived on the market for the first time in 1968 as a “table wine”, and then became a real denomination, Bolgheri Sassicaia Doc, a unique case in Italy of a “company” denomination, as it is all inside the same Tenuta San Guido. Which, solidly in the hands of the Incisa della Rocchetta family, is a more complex company than many may know, made up of 2,500 hectares, of which 90 make part of Sassicaia’s vineyards, but also with 1,000 hectares of woods and 500 hectares dedicated to agriculture, where high-quality durum wheat, other cereals and more is produced, and also from the “Rifugio Faunistico Padule di Bolgheri”, an oasis affiliated with the WWF, 513 hectares that are a splendid example of the original environment of the upper Maremma, where the first private protected area in Italy was created, since 1959, again on the initiative of the Marquis Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, passing to the horses, with the RDO - Razza Dormello Olgiata, from which arrived the horses that have made the history of horseback riding, above all Ribot, defined as “the horse of the twentieth century”. A historic company, a pillar of Made in Italy excellence, in wine (it is the winery with the highest rate of profitability in Italy, ed) and not only, which has always looked ahead with foresight, thanks to the guide and to the shared values of the Incisa della Rocchetta family, flanked by Carlo Paoli, historical general manager of Tenuta San Guido, and by Alessandro Berlingieri, CEO of Tenuta San Guido since 2018, who now, as the same company communicates, also becomes president. (in-depth) |
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It is written about Italian wine worldwide. It is not a surprise, in the first place of the “35 Best Italian Wine Blogs and Websites”, the ranking on blogs and websites focused on Italian wine, edited by FeedSpot, the largest online database on blogs, which has examined thousands of blogs and websites for traffic, followers on social channels and originality, there is the Italian section of Wine Spectator, the most authoritative of the US magazines dedicated to wine. And it is not a surprise either the presence, in 2nd place, of WineNews, considered by FeedSpot as the “reference point on the world of wine, with interviews, videos and latest news”. Expanding the field to the “100 Best Wine Blogs”, which analyzes all kinds of blogs, from all over the world and focused on any topic, WineNews is one of the only two sites in the ranking, at position no. 24. |
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Among Italian producers, energy, at least until now, has never been a cost item to pay too much attention to. Substantially stable in prices in recent years, electricity and gas account for between 5% and 10% of the total costs faced by wineries, many of which, especially if they are large, have long since focused on photovoltaics, producing at least part of their energy needs. The energy emergency, thus, in the wine sector, at least in a direct way, is being felt less than in other production sectors. The real problems, looking at the long term, will concern the erosion of consumer purchasing power. Restaurants, bars and hotels are already facing unprecedented increases in operating costs, with price increases on menus effectively inevitable. At the same time, between bills and inflation, Italian families are facing months of renunciation, with cuts expected both in the shopping cart and in eating out. The effects of which, evidently, will also fall on the wine supply chain. Thus, at WineNews, the analysis of some of the most important entrepreneurs in Italian wine, at the helm of companies such as Marchesi di Barolo, Planeta, Umani Ronchi, Feudi di San Gregorio, Caprai, Mezzacorona, Caviro, Frescobaldi, Tommasi Family Estates, Villa Sandi e Antinori. (their reflections in-depth). |
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In Valle d’Aosta, the harvest has been going on since mid-August, but on Etna, it will perhaps begin in mid-September. Italy is split in two: from North to South, that of the heroic harvest, or the maneuvers, mostly manual, that are being set in motion for the harvest of grapes in the most inaccessible and biodiversity-impacted vineyards of Italy. Taking stock is Cervim, the Center for Research, Studies, Safeguarding, Coordination and Enhancement for Mountain Viticulture, which has the situation of all the wineries located in the most remote and hardly practicable corners of Italy. (in-depth)
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If Asti is a pioneer of the Piedmontese and Italian sparkling wine tradition, it is also thanks to its communication campaigns, which have made the history of Italian advertising: from the posters of artists such as Armando Testa At “Caroselli”, from commercials with Hollywood stars to chef Alessandro Borghese, today ambassador of the DOCG, and to the greatest tennis players in the APT Tour tournaments of which Asti is Official Sparkling Wine. Here are some “pearls” of “Ninety Years of Bubbles”, exhibition in Asti previewed by WineNews, for the 90th anniversary of the Asti Spumante and Moscato d’Asti Docg Consortium. |
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It is already time for wine guides. And to open it, as always, is “Vinibuoni d’Italia” of the Italian Touring Club (Tci), with the finals, staged in Buttrio from August 21 to 25. And among the hundreds of “Crowns” the Santa Margherita Group of the Marzotto family stands out, with “6 crowns”, between Cà Maiol, Lamole di Lamole, Cà del Bosco e Kettmeir. “4 crowns” for the ColleMassari Group, including the three for Poggio di Sotto, one of the few single wineries to make a “triplet”, together with Umani Ronchi from Marche, and Cataldi Madonna and Cantine Agriverde from Abruzzo. |
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