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Issue 469 - April 20th - 24th 2020 - Expressly created for 11.897 wine lovers,
professionals and opinion leaders from all over the world |
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In difficult times, it is good to cling to small positive signs. Like those of Liv-Ex, the secondary market reference of Fine Wine. As already reported by WineNews, for example, Sassicaia 2009 is the wine that, in the first quarter of 2020, saw its value grow the most (+17%), in a context in which Italy has gained a market share of 24% of the total number of wines traded. With the Barolo Monfortino Riserva di Giacomo Conterno 2013 no. 1 absolute, even in the moved values. In this sense, in the top 5 also Tignanello Antinori. Which, according to Liv-Ex, over the 5 years has been the most performing Supertuscan. |
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“Nothing will be the same as before”, the post-emergency refrain does not apply to the wine people: Italian consumers (85% of the population) declare, in essence, to be faithful to their habits already from Phase 2, compatible with their financial availability. In the meantime, it is not as before the dynamics of lockdown consumption: the glass is more half-empty than half full, and the growth of purchases in large-scale distribution does not compensate for the zeroing of consumption outside the home. And if 55% of consumers have not changed their habits, 3 out of 10 say they have drunk less wine (but also less beer) in quarantine, compared to 14% who indicate higher consumption. This is affirmed with great optimism by the survey - the first with an emergency Corononavirus focus, which will be followed by others in the coming months - conducted by the Vinitaly-Nomisma Wine Monitor “The effects of the lockdown on wine consumption in Italy”, carried out on 1,000 wine consumers of the Italian population. According to the research, the “after” will be like “before” for 80% of consumers. Or more than before, with the millennials forecasting a significant increase in consumption in particular of “mixed” wines (25% expecting to increase demand), demonstrating the desire to return to new normality with the usual aggregating elements, starting with the product and its places of consumption outside the home (restaurants, bars, wine bars), which are worth a slice of 1/3 of the sample in terms of volume (42% among the millennials). Giovanni Mantovani, CEO of VeronaFiere, said: “If little seems to change in consumer habits - and this is good news - wine companies are instead called upon to make profound changes, struggling with the need to react to financial tensions and at the same time defend themselves against speculation. The market and its new reference channels will be the main cures for a sector that today needs an extraordinary outlook on the economic situation and a partner able to provide new horizons and solutions. As Veronafiere - he concluded - from now until the next few months we want to take on, even more, this responsibility in support of the sector”. |
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“The hotel and restaurant sector is closed everywhere, and we estimate that 30% of the volume and 50% of the value on the European wine market will be blocked. There were a few signs of growth at the beginning of March, we are now seeing big drops in supermarkets, reconfirming the negative trend for the sector”. This is the analysis of Jean-Marie Barillèr, president of the Comité Européen des Entreprises Vins (CEEV). That, when presenting a package of measures to the EU Commission (from the extension of unspent CMO funds for this year to other years, to voluntary crisis distillation), warns: “we also must consider that a part of the HoReCa will be “dismantled”, which will impact tourism, as well as the possible collapse of some importers and distributors. We have to be aware that we have to face a long crisis and that it will take time to recover”. |
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From the rebirth of Sagrantino to its success, experimentation in the winery that was its creator is continuous, today in the sign of high technology and sustainability for the future: for the first time in Italy, in the vineyards of Arnaldo Caprai's famous Umbria red wine, a large smart anti-frost fan against frost is the high-tech response to the lighting of fires in the vineyards, whose smart management has allowed the winery over the years to save half the working hours and to reduce the use of pesticides in the vineyard by 1/3. The pioneering experiment - in the Umbria Region’s Agroclim Technology project - is just the latest of a series that Caprai has put in place in an integrated system of sustainability. “This is the last step we have taken with a view to prevention - explains Marco Caprai - the problem of spring frosts is now very frequent in Umbria, much more important than hail. To make real sustainability we need to create a sort of range of solutions to bring the grapes to perfect ripeness. From the moment we started to do sustainability, experience has led us to change our path. In agriculture there is the possibility to draw on the digital revolution and tools that only a few years ago were unimaginable”. |
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A distillation managed at EU level, with a budget of 350 million euros (implementable by individual countries) for 10 million hectoliters, and resources for the storage of the highest quality wines, which will have more time to end up on the market, once the emergency is over: these are the requests, to the European Commission, signed by the wine cooperatives of Italy, France and Spain (worth half of the European wine production, 75 million hectoliters per year). This is reported by a note from Confcooperative. |
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There is a vineyard owned by the municipality in The Langhe, one of the most famous wine regions in the world. It is a historic vineyard, only 1.600 square meters in size, located in Muscatel di Cannubi, among the Barolo crus. Luigi Rinaldi donated the vineyard to the Municipality of Barolo in the 1980s, which, in 2003, assigned it to the winemaker Giulio Viglione on a free loan. 16 years later, the municipality has decided to take it back, to replant it, because of the bad conditions it was in, as explained to WineNews by the Councillor of the Municipality of Barolo, Federico Scarzello. And reassign it when it is ready, but no longer for free. In just a few years, the value of the hectares planted with vines in Barolo exceeded 2 million euros, with even higher figures for the best crus. Even a small fraction of a vineyard, for a small town like Barolo (800 inhabitants) can become a resource. |
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In the first three months of 2020, wine sales in Italian distribution, with Horeca at a standstill, exceeded 434 million euros, up 6.2% in value on 2019, compared to 4.8% growth in volume (again on 2019). Iri data, analyzed by WineNews, show that the growth, compared to a substantially flat February and an already positive January, is mainly due to the +9.7% in volume recorded in March 2020, already in full Covid emergency. Prosecco flies: +21.1%. |
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