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Issue 686 - June 17th - 21st 2024 - Expressly created for 4811 wine lovers,
professionals and opinion leaders from all over the world | |
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| | | After acquiring full ownership of Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, in Napa Valley, Marchesi Antinori, to date the only Italian company present in California, will soon also have 100% ownership of Col Solare, one of the most prestigious wineries in Washington State, in the Red Mountain territory. An adventure, again, that began with Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, 30 years ago, when Piero Antinori, visiting the area, had the desire to create there great wines from Cabernet Sauvignon, the variety with which the vast majority of the estate’s 11 hectares of vineyards is grown. The transaction is expected to be finalized by the end of June. | |
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| | It is firmly written in the sector’s recent history that 2023 was a difficult year for Italian wine. As is, however, that the wine economy has held up, albeit experiencing more or less profound changes. This is confirmed by the “Annual Report” 2024 by Valoritalia, the largest Italian wine certification body, led by Francesco Liantonio and Giuseppe Liberatore, president and general manager of a reality that certifies the wines of 49 Docg out of 77, 133 Doc out of 330 and 37 Igt out of 118, equal to 56% of the certified Italian Dop and Igp wine, for more than 2.3 billion bottles (of which 1.3 of Doc wines, 389 million of Docg wines and 662 million of Igt wines), for an economic value of more than 9.2 billion euros (with the top 20 appellations alone worth 7.5 billion euros of certified wine on the weighted average ex-cellar price of individual appellations, accounting for 82% of the total). From data, one of the evidences, was the growth of Igt wines, in 2023, at +16.5% in volume, 97.6 million more bottles over 2022. A figure in sharp contrast to the -9.2% of the type in the previous two years. A growth that came at the expense of Doc wines (-2.8% over 2022) and Docg wines (-5.7% over 2022). But, looking to the future, Valoritalia points out, the difficulties linked to the drop in consumption will be compounded by those, which, in all likelihood, will be brought by the entry on the market (partly already begun) of wines from the 2023 harvest, one of the scarcest in recent decades. Yet, some small signs of recovery seem to be coming, at least from the first four months of 2024, with an overall growth in bottled volumes of 1.1%; growth sustained, this time, by a recovery of Doc and Docg (+1.9%), while Igt lose a sharp 1.5%. A complicated scenario, for an Italian wine that, however, can be “trusted”, even if “nonconformities” are on the rise: of the 51,768 samples submitted for verification, 50,495 were found to be suitable, 857 revisable, and only 399, in the end, unsuitable. This is important because certifications are increasingly important. On the sustainability front, which consumers are increasingly looking at, but also on that of access to credit, as reiterated by Francesco Liantonio and Giuseppe Liberatore, heads of Valoritalia, and Emanuele Fontana, Head of Agribusiness Crédit Agricole (in more detail). | |
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| | What we find written on the label of a bottle is a factor that carries no small weight in the consumer's choice. The work that many companies have been doing in recent years related to sustainability is seeing its fruits in the purchasing decisions of wine lovers, but the designation of a wine, whether Docg, Doc or Igt, remains the requirement that gives the most certainty to the average consumer, according to “The value of certifications in the perception of producers and consumers”, 2024 edition of Nomisma Wine Monitor’s focus. For 93% of companies, sustainability is a relevant issue, while, in the next two years, consumers will show an increasing interest in sustainable (74%), organic (62%), low-alcohol (46%) wines. | |
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| | | A glass of wine that instead of a stem has a rose stem with its thorns, a glass of what could be whiskey with the rim like a metal saw, and a headline that insinuates doubt: “Is That Drink Worth It to You? Alcohol is riskier than previously thought, but weighing the trade-offs of health risks can be deeply personal”. And then, however, a rather blatantly, but much more balanced, sided article, where it reaffirms, in the writer’s view, that there is no such thing as safe, risk-free alcohol consumption, but also that the issue of risk itself needs to be clarified, contextualized, and explained well, because if we talk about “increased risk” starting from a risk that is low anyway, the increase, logically, will also be contained. And that much, in the end, depends on personal assessments of the balance between the risk itself and the pleasure and social function of indulging in a drink, as of many other products and behaviors. This is the extreme summary of an article (in more detail) that appeared, in recent days, in “The New York Times”, by Susan Dominus, formerly on the staff of the Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper “for public service” for an investigation of sexual abuse in the workplace in 2018. | |
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| | | At Gorgona, a project in which Marchesi Frescobaldi is at the forefront, and where wine means redemption, is moving forward. Here, inmates spend the last period of their sentences, working to develop professional skills that facilitate work and social reintegration. Around a small vineyard, the project starts, the goal of which is to allow inmates, regularly paid by Marchesi Frescobaldi, to gain concrete experience in the field of viticulture with the possibility of entering to work in Marchesi Frescobaldi Estates even after their prison term, as professionals. | |
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| | The market for subsidized agricultural policies in 2023 confirms the upward trend in values and premiums, which, according to data from insurance companies, reached a new all-time high in the last campaign. This is revealed by Ismea in its “Report on Risk Management in Agriculture” 2024, which for all subsidized policies, financed with EU and national contributions, estimates an insured value in 2023 of 10.3 billion euros, +2.2% year-on-year. Driving the market is the vegetable crops sector, which, with 7.5 billion Plv insured (+4.1% compared to 2022), offsets the downward changes recorded in the values expressed by animal husbandry and policies on farm structures. Wine grapes are also confirmed as the most insured product in 2023 with 2.9 billion. | |
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| | Two “Chairman’s Awards” out of 7 total for Etna, which confirms itself as a territory of absolute excellence, namely Tasca d’Almerita’s Etna Rosso VV Tenuta Tascante Contrada Sciaranuova 2017 and Passopisciaro’s Terre Siciliane Contrada C 2021, and 8 golds out of 27 total, including 6 from Sicily, by Carranco, Alberelli di Giodo of Carlo Ferrini, Nicosia, Tornatore, Animaetnea and Passopisciaro, and 2 from Campania, both Taurasi, by Feudi di San Gregorio Villa Matilde: here are the best Italian wines from volcanic soils crowned by the first edition of the “Volcanic Wine Awards”. | |
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