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Issue 544 - September 27th - October 1st 2021 - Expressly created for 4.279 wine lovers,
professionals and opinion leaders from all over the world |
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Between the need to manage climate change in the vineyard, but also to use less chemistry and also to save money in the fight against vine diseases, wines made from “Piwi” grapes, i.e. resistant varieties, while still a niche, are becoming less and less rare. This is a new trend in viticulture and enology, and one that will now also have a new, decidedly authoritative ad hoc event. The first “Review and evaluation of wines from Piwi grapes”, organized by the Edmund Mach Foundation, one of the most important centers for applied research on vines and wine in Italy and beyond, will be held at the historical location of San Michele all’Adige on November 18. |
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At the heart of Moio’s thinking is the “perfect grape”, the one with a naturally balanced composition, a condition for practicing what the new OIV president calls “light enology”. That is winery practices that can be traced back to process assistance, excluding corrective interventions. This starting point highlights the cornerstone on which quality wine-growing is based: the suitability of the growing area. This was the thread that guided the Lectio magistralis by Luigi Moio, one of the most renowned wine scientists (and producer in Campania with the Quintodecimo winery) in his first outing as president of the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), staged at the University of Padua’s Cirve (Interdepartmental Centre for Research in Viticulture and Oenology). A lecture in which Professor Luigi Moio outlined the scientific direction he intends to take in his term of office, indicating the future guidelines for viticulture and enology research oriented towards sustainability, in order to cope with the current emergencies, both climatic and environmental, and to allow vines to remain in the areas of the countries that have made wine history. “Grapes are the perfect fruit for making wine, the only single-ingredient alcoholic beverage”, began Moio, “provided that the components are in perfect balance, which they are if the plant is in tune with the environmental context, and this allows the winemaker to limit himself to overseeing the fundamental processes of transformation into wine. This is the only way to produce wines of great longevity, which cannot be achieved if you intervene enologically to adjust this or that parameter”. And if global warming is putting many territories in many wine-producing countries in crisis, Italy, according to Moio, has a not insignificant competitive advantage: Italy’s great wealth of historical vines and the diversity of soil, climate and terrain throughout the peninsula. “Italian wine becomes a planetary model of diversity and biodiversity without competitors. It is enough to compare the Italian ampelographic platform with the French one based on 20-30 vines that we count by region. We have major and minor grape varieties, yet to be studied, the source of potentially key genes to solve problems in the former”. |
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The wine and catering worlds have always been closely linked, and will now meet, in a very special way, at “Vinitaly Special Edition”, the extraordinary three-day Veronafiere event reserved for wine businesses, scheduled from October 17 to 19 in Verona. It will definitely put the spotlight on the Italian market and has also organized a strategic collaboration with FIPE (Italian Federation of Public Enterprises), which represents over 300.000 companies all over the country in a sector that counts over 1 million employees and an added value of 46 billion euros. On 19 October, there will be a day of initiatives and walkaround tastings specifically for Horeca operators, a channel that, for Italian wineries, is worth 36% of domestic sales, for a value of over 2 billion euros (data: Unione Italiana Vini - Uiv 2019). |
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Italy is permanently the third most “traded” wine region on the secondary fine wines market. It has a value share of 16%, behind only Bordeaux (40.5%) and Burgundy (20.4%), as Liv-ex data have stated. Historically, the number one item regards Tuscany wines, which represent, on average over the last twenty years, 72% of bottles of wine exchanged, thanks to their enormous liquidity, and to the strength of brands such as Sassicaia, Ornellaia, Masseto, Tignanello, Solaia, Case Basse Soldera, Biondi Santi, and substantially stable production in numbers. In 2010, Tuscany’s share reached 95%. However, since then it has continued to drop, mainly due to the growth of the share of Italian wine on the market, which is at 58% today. Piedmont, the other great Italian wine region, obviously cannot move the same volumes as Tuscany, but it has reached exceptional prices with Giacomo Conterno’s Barolo Monfortino Riserva. The boom in Piedmont is told by one statistic: +11,000% in trade over the last ten years, so much so that it now accounts for 39% of the share of Italian wines traded on Liv-ex. Between Tuscany and Piedmont there is also room for wine gems from regions such as Veneto, Abruzzo, Umbria, Puglia, Sicily and Campania, upon which critics and the trade as well have finally begun to focus their eyes. |
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Marilisa Allegrini, one of the most successful Italian wine producers, at the helm of the Allegrini Group, griffe of Amarone della Valpolicella, with estates also in Bolgheri, with Poggio al Tesoro, and producer of Brunello di Montalcino, with Cantina San Polo, received the “Premio Leonardo Qualità Italia” 2019 in Rome, in the presence of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella. In addition to Allegrini, for wine & food, the historical Fabbri 1905 (liqueurs and syrups) and Andrea Illy, president of illycaffè, also received awards. |
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The state of the art in the world of wine is not only illustrated by production and trade figures, but also by trends in the nursery sector because tomorrow’s vineyards are born from the vine shoots that animate the market today. From the privileged observatory of Vivai Cooperativi Rauscedo, a leading company in Italy and Europe, which has inaugurated the “VCR-Research Center”, the new plantings have restarted, with 75 million plants sold worldwide by 2021, a market almost divided in half, with 44% from abroad and 56% from Italy, and growth in Italy of 15%. Primitivo, Glera and Vermentino are at the top. |
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When it comes to Made in Italy, wine and food brands are always at the top, as well as being the sparkling gems and pillars of the Italian lifestyle so highly admired all over the world. And, they have created a value that is then redistributed throughout the territories. The best were chosen by the “Save The Brand 2021” award, promoted by LC Publishing Group. Many big names in the wine world stood out. From Berlucchi to the Lunelli Group (Ferrari, Bisol and more), from Masi Agricola to Tasca d’Almerita, from Caparzo to Podere La Pace (see further details). |
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