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Issue 583 - June 27th - July 1st 2022 - Expressly created for 4.366 wine lovers,
professionals and opinion leaders from all over the world |
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The wine lists in restaurants around the world change and evolve. Yet, on a par with the quality of food and excellence of service, they can make all the difference. And as has been the case since 1981, judging the world’s best is the U.S. magazine “Wine Spectator”, which annually awards the world’s best restaurant wine lists. 97, in the world, “Grand Awards”, the highest recognition, in the 2022 edition, including six Italians, all confirmed. Namely Enoteca Pinchiorri, Rome Cavalieri’s La Pergola, La Ciau del Tornavento (photo), Ristorante Cracco, Antica Bottega del Vino in Verona, and Il Poeta Contadino in Alberobello. |
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The run of Italian sparkling wines in the world’s top three markets (the USA, Germany and the UK) continues, but that of still wines comes to a halt, and in the UK Prosecco is more than a craze, so much so that it is now worth more than 2/3 of the volume of sparkling wines imported into the UK from around the world. In the first four months of 2022, in fact, Prosecco alone exceeded the value sales of all Italian still wines combined. An unprecedented result (which the Uiv Observatory recorded considering re-exports on products in transit, especially from Belgium), which sets the growth over the first four months of 2021 at +127% in value and +74% in volume. The analysis by Unione Italiana Vini (Uiv) on a customs basis, carried out on the bottled wine imports of the top three world markets returns, however, a picture with lights and shadows. The first four months, aided by a significant setback in April, close at -1% overall in value (data harmonized to the dollar, equal to 1.3 billion), and in volume the sign turns even more negative: -4.1%, to 2.5 million hectoliters. The effect is the combination of 2 opposite sides of the same coin: on the one hand, the still wine type, with imported volumes falling by -10% and values at -9%; on the other hand, sparkling wines flying at +17% in volume and +30% in value. In the U.S., bottled volumes record -2% for still wines and a new jump in sparkling (+12%). Red light in Germany for both types, at -18% and -12% respectively, while in the UK still wines are negative (-8%) and sparkling wines positive (+35%). “We believe it is unlikely to replicate the performance of 2021, an exceptional year that recorded growths, from April to September, of almost 30%”, comments the president of Unione Italiana Vini (Uiv), Lamberto Frescobaldi: “this would be a normal year, if it were not for a conflict that has exacerbated the tension on energy costs and those of dry raw materials. A conjuncture, to which is added inflation, that is becoming difficult and that impacts our companies on average 20-30% more than the cost of the finished product. It will be appropriate to consider with institutions extraordinary actions to structure the sector in defense of increasingly frequent exogenous factors and in favor of new internationalization projects”. |
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Being a B-Corp company means not only seeing its commitment to being environmentally sustainable certified, but also socially, in its relationships with employees, suppliers and the territory. “It means making commitments that go beyond the certification of products, and making a path that leads to improving a little bit at a time, day by day”. Thus Antonio Capaldo, at the head of Feudi di San Gregorio, one of the most important realities of Italian wine which, after Equalitas certification, has also obtained B-Corp certification, the only case in the sector in Italy to date, as WineNews is able to anticipate. “We hope to be an example. BCorp’s is a path that leads to this, that makes you measure yourself on many aspects every day, and raises the standards in the company” (the story in the in-depth article). |
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The sea as a cellar, the darkness of the abysses to ensure refinement at a constant temperature, the waves to give a natural remuage to the bottles. That of “Under Water Wine” is not a passing fad, but a real enological practice, which has intrigued and involved many producers in Italy and around the world. The latest of the territories to enter this reality is Etna, with a project supported by Benanti and Passopisciaro, the label founded by Andrea Franchetti, who passed away recently, and today led by his son Benjamin Franchetti, which involves the sinking, 50 meters below sea level, in the marine protected area, Isola dei Ciclopi, of 2,000 bottles of Etna Rosso and Etna Bianco. The goal, however, is not only to test the effects of underwater aging, but to examine the evolution of the sinking wines during their stay underwater, through the analysis of samples taken by specialized divers who will descend into the depths of the sea, month after month. Behind the experimental research is the start-up company “Orygini”, founded by three young friends, Giuseppe Leone, Riccardo Peligra and Luca Catania, who financed the project together with Benanti and Passopisciaro, in collaboration with the University of Catania (continued in more detail). |
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To Marchesi Antinori, a top Italian wine brand, the first private, family-owned company by turnover (265 million euros in 2021, +24.5%, and among the best in profitability, at 17%, according to Mediobanca data), now in its 26th generation, with Albiera Antinori as president, the 2022 “Financial Attractiveness Award” from the Eccellenze d’Impresa partnership (Arca Fondi Sgr, Harvard Business Review Italia and GEA-Consulenti di direzione). “Exceptional financial performance, with very high margins and steady growth over the long term”, among the reasons for the award. |
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Wine is one of the sectors of excellence in the made-in-Italy economy, and institutions also continue to invest in it, supporting the companies that are leaders in it. As done by Invitalia, a company controlled by the Ministry of Economy, which has approved the 23.4 million euro “Development Contract” (with a non-repayable contribution of 8.8 million), presented by Mgm Mondodelvino, which provides, among other things, an increase in production capacity of +141%, employment, for 21 new employees. “The company”, explains a note from Invitalia, “is 93.15% owned by the company Venere Spa, which is controlled by the major shareholder Fondo Clessidra Spa Sgr, and 6.85% by the Martini family”. The approval comes after a development agreement signed between the Ministry of Economic Development, Invitalia and the company. |
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Vinitaly, for years, has been the most important platform for the promotion of Italian wine in the world. And, since always, Veronafiere’s flagship fair, which has grown exponentially, also in its presence abroad, under the leadership, as general director of the Verona-based entity, of Giovanni Mantovani, who, after 25 years at the top, concludes (due to retirement) his mandate (in the coming days video-interview on WineNews, ed.). But from September 1 this year, he will be, among other things, “Senior Advisor” to the “Top Management” of Veronfiere itself. |
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