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Issue 719 - February 3rd - 7th 2025 - Expressly created for 3735 wine lovers,
professionals and opinion leaders from all over the world | |
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| | | The 2020 wine year in Valpolicella was a succession of unpredictable events that gave a highly variable result in the vineyard, testing, but ultimately rewarding, producers. As emerges from WineNews’ tastings (in more detail) at “Amarone Opera Prima”, where the 2020 vintage made its debut, which showed in the glass the general stylistic evolution of the terroir, moving increasingly toward finesse and elegance, but also the many winery interpretations of a complex vintage reflected in equally varied Amarone della Valpolicella labels, with excellent acidity and typicity and a well-balanced aromatic set. | |
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| | From a meditation wine to a gastronomic wine, capable of highlighting the many facets of the Valpolicella valleys and the wisdom of the producers in the vineyard, as in the resting of the grapes, a true art to be adapted to changing climatic conditions. A transition that marks a conceptual revolution above all, one that unmoors Amarone (which does not seem to be suffering much from the crisis, in a decidedly more negative context, and continuing to move more than half of the 600 million euros of wine-related turnover in Valpolicella) from the dualism between territory and method, in a fusion that represents its uniqueness, unrepeatable for soil and climate conditions of the vineyards, for typical and ideal varieties for appassimento - a strictly territorial technique, and seeking Unesco recognition - and for know-how handed down between generations, adapted with research and technology to climate change. This is the future, which is already partly present, for Amarone della Valpolicella (analysis in more detail), celebrated by the Consortium at “Amarone Opera Prima”, in recent days in Verona, at the Palazzo della Gran Guardia, in the shadow of the Arena. A special edition this one - dedicated to the debut of the 2020 vintage - that inaugurates the centenary year of the first “ante litteram” Consortium, established in 1925, at the Province of Verona, forerunner of the Consortium for the Protection of Valpolicella Wines of the “modern era”, created following the establishment of the controlled designation of origin in 1968. Today it is the first “red” Consortium in Veneto with more than 2,400 wineries, 360 bottlers and a vineyard on the 8,600 hectares, for a value around 6 billion euros (considering the assets of vineyards and wineries), a value reached in the last 25 years, in which the land value of the vineyards alone has grown by 133%, against an extension of vineyards increased by 65%. The 2025 edition of “Amarone Opera Prima”, in addition to the centenary, marks a record number of companies participating in the event (78), to the satisfaction of the Consortium, also in the forefront against “Amarone sounding,” with successes that have protected the brand and brought as much as 800,000 euros into the consortium coffers, and therefore of the territory, as compensation for 12 legal actions won. | |
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| | “U.S. duties on Italian wine (if they were applied by Trump on EU products, including wine, ed.) will result in a loss of sales of 330 million euros in 2025, a figure that would drop to 250 million if the dollar were to maintain current levels of strength”. This is stated by the Observatory of Unione Italiana Vini - Uiv, with a projection that assumes “duties at 20% for all still wines and 10% for sparkling wines”. And, therefore, an estimated 15% loss on last year’s result. “Wine”, said Uiv president Lamberto Frescobaldi, “is one of the Made in Italy sectors most exposed in case of duties in the U.S.”. | |
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| | | The year 2025 of fine wines opens as 2024 had closed, that is, with a minus sign, a common trait, for months now, of all the indices of the Liv-Ex, the reference platform of the secondary market for great collectible wines. With the Italy 100, dedicated to Italian wines, being the only one showing a timid attempt at a turnaround, in the positive, according to data analyzed by WineNews. And so, after a year-end figure that saw declines in many cases close to -10%, the downward trend continues in the first survey of January 2025. The Liv-Ex 100, the benchmark index, with a -0.4% month-on-month, brings its year-over-year decline to -9.2%. Worse still is the Liv-Ex 1000, the largest, in numerical terms, of the indices, which, with a -0.9% in January 2025, sets its loss over the 12 months at -10.5%. And while the declines of all the French sub-indices (Bordeaux 500, Bordeaux Legends 40, Champagne 50, Burgundy 150 and Rhone 100) continue, and not only that, almost all of them with declines around -1% month-on-month, and around -10% over the 12 months, a small positive sign, the only one, with a +0.6% month-on-month (but still -5.6% over the 12 months), is being marked by the Italy 100, which is trying, at least, to reverse the trend. | |
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| | | From Juliette Colbert to Carlo Tancredi Falletti, from Paolo Desana to Michelangelo Abbado, from Luigi Einaudi to Giacomo Morra to Adriano Olivetti. Personalities who have made the history of Langhe, and not only, protagonists of the 7 large panels placed along the street leading to the center of Barolo, known worldwide for its great wine. It is “Barolo Wall”, the art installation conceived by Urban Artist Jargon and the Municipality of Barolo (and supported by Epson), which promotes equality, respect and social change. | |
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| | Concentric circles, composed of a series of signs of different colors that represent the energy released from the union of multiple components when they merge into a harmonious whole: this is the work of the internationally renowned Cameroonian artist, Pascale Marthine Tayou, chosen to narrate “Determination,” the character chosen to describe the 2022 vintage of Ornellaia, one of the great wines born in the Bolgheri territory, from the estate owned by the Frescobaldi Group, in edition no. 17 of the “Vendemmia d’Artista” project, one of the most concrete and long-lasting wine patronage projects, which, to date, also thanks to special formats auctioned, has supported art projects and foundations around the world, to which it has donated, in total, more than $2.8 million. | |
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| | In the age of smartphones comes also the “Guida Sicuro” by Saiet, which has created an “alcohol test” that connects directly to the phone and that, through the ad hoc app, with a simple blow, in 30 seconds, indicates the detected alcohol level, the risk levels (green, yellow or red) of being out of the standard. A device that will be presented at “Slow Wine Fair” 2025 (in BolognaFiere, from February 23 to 25, at the same time as “Sana Food”), of which Saiet is a partner, and where it will illustrate how the device works. | |
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