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Issue 515 - March 8th - 12th 2021 - Expressly created for 4.168 wine lovers,
professionals and opinion leaders from all over the world |
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The sustainability of a company is not substantiated or determined only due to its environmental and economic aspects, because a company, more so if it is agricultural, and even more so if it is a wine company, is an integral and active part of the territory, and the main player is its social sustainability. That, in the rows of Sagrantino di Montefalco of Arnaldo Caprai, passes through a path of collaboration with Caritas of Foligno for the inclusion of migrants into the working world. “It’s a story that dispels the myth of immigration as a problem, these are young people who are ready to make sacrifices, they are often the best part of the countries they escape from”, Marco Caprai tells WineNews.
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The curtain falls, even in official Istat data, on 2020 for Italian wine abroad, which, in the last month of the year, confirms those signs of recovery already seen in previous months, closing at the end with a balance of -2.3% on 2019, at 6.284 billion euros. A good result, both from the perspective of the overall foreign trade figure, which saw Italian exports lose 9.7%, and from the point of view of the wine sector, which in October 2020 had closed at -3.4% on October 2019. The WineNews analysis, as always, starts from the United States, the first outlet market for Italian wines, which lost something in December 2020, closing at 1.453 billion euros, down 5.6%. Canada is better, at 346 million euros (+1.5%). In Europe, Germany confirms to be by far the first EU destination for Italian wine, with a turnover that in 2020 reached 1.074 billion euros, growing even by 3.7%. Great Britain closes with -6.3% of wine imported from Italy, at 714 million euros. Switzerland was stable, France - understandably - fell (-13.6% to 178 million euros), while Sweden (+5%) and above all Norway (+29.8%) made Italian wine fly in Scandinavia. In Asia, the collapse of China and Japan is slowing down, with South Korea among the best performers in 2020: +30%. The result is the fruit of contrasting trends in the various periods of the year: 2020 had in fact started extremely positively compared to the already excellent 2019, with a +5.2% in the first quarter (1.51 billion in the first three months of the year compared to 1.44 in 2019), while from the following month the effects of the Covid-19 emergency began to be felt more strongly with a sharp drop in exports (in May it reached -24.3%) for an overall result of -12.6% in the second quarter (1.38 billion in 2020 compared to 1.57 billion in 2019). The third quarter with -1.9% began to show resilience, with an overall result of 1.56 billion compared to 1.59 billion in 2019. Positive signs, however, came especially in the fourth quarter of 2020 with +0.7%, with exports growing strongly in November and December 2020, and with an overall result of more than 1.84 billion compared to 1.83 billion in 2019. |
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Il Poggione’s Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 2015 (Best of Show Brunello di Montalcino), Rocca delle Macìe’s Chianti Classico Riserva 2016 Sergioveto (Best of Show Chianti Classico Riserva), Siddùra’s Moscato di Sardegna Passito 2018 Nùali (Best of Show Italy Noble Sweet) and Villa Sandi’s Asolo Prosecco Superiore Brut Biodiversity Friend (Best of Show Prosecco), Kellerei Bozen’s Lagrein Merlot Alto Adige 2018 (Best of Show Alto Adige), Ca dei Frati’s Pietro dal Cero 2013 (Best of Show Amarone della Valpolicella), Fattoria di Basciano’s Chianti Rufina 2019 (Best of Show Chianti): here are the best of Italy awarded in the “Mundus Vini” tasting no. 28, one of the most important wine contests in the world, signed by the German publisher Meininger Verlag. |
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2021 seems destined to be “the year of Brunello”, on the markets with two excellent consecutive vintages like never before, such as 2015 (which is now coming in the Riserva version) and 2016. Narrated in depth for WineNews by authoritative voices such as Monica Larner, the Italian editor of “The Wine Advocate”, and James Suckling, the two vintages have received unanimous acclaim from all the major international names. After “Vinous” by Antonio Galloni and the Top 100 by “Wine Enthusiast” and “Wine Spectator” in the past months, the US magazine by Marvin R. Shanken has been released online with its stellar ratings of 2016 (very high scores), calling it simply “sensational”. A very important worldwide media echo, because, as the president of the Consorzio del Brunello di Montalcino Fabrizio Bindocci said at “Benvenuto Brunello Off”, “80% of our bottles are destined for the foreign market, which has never stopped selling, thanks to these superior vintages. The Italian market is also doing well, despite the closure of the HORECA channel, because Brunello is also consumed at home”. A great 2015 vintage, then a great 2015 Riserva, then a super 2016, and now the 2020 vintage, with the five stars unveiled by the “Divine” Federica Pellegrini, Olympic champion and lover of Brunello di Montalcino. |
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“A recognition of our work as wine entrepreneurs and farmers, and for all those who, like us, have one thing very clear: that the true value is not in the wine, but in the land and the vineyard”. These are the words of Lamberto Frescobaldi, at the helm of the Frescobaldi group, one of the most important and historic names in Italian wine (with almost 1,500 hectares of vineyards), and one of the chosen few Italian producers to end up on the cover of the most popular international wine magazine, “Wine Spectator”, in its April 2021 issue (full interview in the in-depth article). |
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Italian and worldwide catering is still at a standstill, or in the best case it lives of some “stop & go”, among thousands of uncertainties, which strongly penalize not only restaurateurs, but also the food and wine industry of higher quality. For a part of the wine industry, good news continues to come from the large-scale distribution, which continues to show very important growth rates, as told by Iri data about the first two months of 2021, analyzed by WineNews. Overall, between Iper and supermarkets and small free service, January and February 2021, in Italy, have moved 301.2 million euros of wine, for 80.8 million liters, with a growth of +8.4% in volume over the same period 2020, and +18.6% in value. |
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Each year, each of the 12 historic European wine families brought together in “Primum Familiae Vini” - Marchesi Antinori, Tenuta San Guido (Sassicaia), Baron Philippe de Rothschild (Mouton), Joseph Drouhin, Egon Müller Scharzhof, Famille Hugel, Champagne Pol Roger, Famille Perrin, Symington Family Estates, Familia Torres, Vega Sicilia and Clarence Dillon - selects one of their finest vintages to create 12 numbered, limited-edition cases. A lot within the reach of few, with case 1 of 12 ending up under the hammer at Sotheby’s, staged through March 29. |
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