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Issue 498 - November 9th - 13th 2020 - Expressly created for 11.897 wine lovers,
professionals and opinion leaders from all over the world |
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“An impressive vintage ... if it weren’t for the stupendous 2015”: this is the judgment on the 2016 vintage of Brunello di Montalcino according to James Suckling, one of the most influential wine critics in the world. A response from the wine guru who arrives after his tastings of 212 labels. Very high the average scores assigned (50% above 95/100), which underline how “Brunello has reached an incredible level of average quality reached by both small and big names”. For the president of the Consorzio del Brunello, Fabrizio Bindocci, “in the year of Covid we had the good fortune to find in the 2015 and 2016 vintages two great allies of Montalcino”. |
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Italian wine is stuck at a crossroads, between the effects of a spring lockdown, surpassed with impetus in the summer, and the quicksand of a second wave that is once again choking consumption, in Italy and abroad. The picture, however hard, is not dramatic, because the sector has shown, in this and many other difficult situations, to be able to accept and win the challenges, always finding new ways and new solutions to climb up the slope. In the meantime, different signals are coming from the markets, but now it is necessary to change the pace of promotion, which must necessarily go through digitization, and learn to think about the system, especially because in the suspended world of these months, has gained space for a certain autarchy. This is the starting point of “Covid, the challenge of Made in Italy wine”, the digital round table organized by Coldiretti and led by President Assoenologi Riccardo Cotarella. “Internationalization is an obligatory choice for our country, which must seize this moment of crisis to develop a more incisive strategy of presence on foreign markets”, comments Ettore Prandini, president of Coldiretti. “Companies must be helped to overcome this difficult moment and the recovery must be prepared with an extraordinary plan of internationalization also with the creation of new commercial channels and a massive communication campaign overcoming the current fragmentation and dispersion of resources”. According to Giovanni Mantovani, at the helm of VeronaFiere, “we are once again in a critical phase, aggravated by an imminent economic crisis, which risks disrupting the sector in a new and challenging scenario. Wine knows how to accept these challenges and win them, but we need strategic and design lines to get back to selling. Vinitaly Nomisma Wine Monitor, in the semester March-August 2020, showed that world trade fell by 15.2%, with a loss of 1.5 billion euros. For Italy, on a customs basis, it is the worst result of the last 30 years, after an excellent start of the year, at +14% in the first two months, followed by a loss of 8.6%. And to pay, are mainly small and medium enterprises, the backbone of the sector”. |
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In terms of growth in the prices of fine wines, in the last year, Piedmont is the most performing region, surpassing Burgundy itself. As stated by Wine Lister’s study and Liv-ex data: in the last 12 months, the Italy 100 (formed by the last 10 physical vintages of the great Supertuscans, Sassicaia, Masseto, Ornellaia and the “triptych” of the Antinori family, formed by Solaia, Tignanello and Guado al Tasso, and again by Sorì San Lorenzo, Barbaresco and Sperss di Gaja, and Barolo Monfortino Riserva by Giacomo Conterno), grew by 3.8%, while the Burgundy 150 lost even -6.6%. “The great Italian wine must no longer feel “son of a lesser god” than the French one”, comments Raimondo Romani, at the helm of Gelardini & Romani Wine Auctions, to WineNews. |
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The impact of the pandemic on the Italian wine markets, in the world and in Italy, in catering and large-scale distribution, the opportunities that despite everything open up in countries such as the USA, Canada, China, Russia and much more: these are the trump cards of Wine2Wine 2020 by Veronafiere and Vinitaly (WineNews is a media partner), regularly on the calendar from November 21 to 24, but in a 100% digital edition after the restrictions on events imposed by the Government to oppose Covid. It is fully transferred to the already active dedicated platform “VeronaFiere Plus”. Among the focuses, on Saturday November 21st the International summit on the future of wine, with data from Nomisma Wine Monitor for Vinitaly Observatory, and the vision of producers and institutions, but also “OperaWine”, with the presentation of “Wine Spectator” of the 100 2021 producers (which, together with the 2020 selection, from what WineNews learns, should all be together for a tasting in Verona, in the traditional preview of Vinitaly 2021, ed). On November 22nd the Congress of Assoenologi with focus on wine and health and the Prosecco phenomenon. On November 23rd focus on large-scale distribution in Italy, seminars, workshops and tastings with the big names of Italian wine connected with the world. |
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With a look at tomorrow and the economic and wine tourism recovery, in Italy affected by Covid, there is a “Capital of Oenological Culture” for 2021: Barolo, symbol of a territory, the Langhe, where pages of the history of Italian wine (and of Italy itself) have been written, today UNESCO World Heritage Site, elected as a sign of hope “Italian City of Wine 2021”, by the Cities of Wine, under the patronage of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, thanks to the project developed by the Municipality of Barolo in collaboration with the Barolo & Castle Foundation. |
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A ranking made not so much with the wines that obtained the highest scores of the year, but emphasizing the stories behind the wines, which increasingly fascinate consumers: this is the philosophy of the “Robert Parker Wine Advocate Top 100 Wine Discoveries 2020”, the new “chart” that, from this year, will be published by one of the most authoritative publications in the wine world, whose signature from Italy is Monica Larner. A new chart, the one that will be published on November 15 for subscribers and on November 17 for everyone, signed by the magazine (which today is 100% owned by the Michelin group, ed.), realized giving priority to wines that tell values, that are able to be long-lived, produced in a sustainable way, and that, in some way, tell an innovative approach, in the vineyard, in the cellar and not only. |
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The digital edition of the World White Truffle of Alba Auction No. 21, organized by the Enoteca Regionale del Piemonte and the Consorzio di Barolo Barbaresco Alba Langhe Dogliani, among others, collected 482,000 euros. From the Castle of Grinzane Cavour, the top lot went to Hong Kong (in connection from the three-starred 8 ½ Bombana, along with other locations such as Dubai and Moscow), where the financier Avinash Abraham won for 100,000 euros two large truffles weighing a total of 900 grams, paired with great wines of Langa. |
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