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Issue 647 - September 18th - 22nd 2023 - Expressly created for 4591 wine lovers, professionals and opinion leaders from all over the world | |
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| | | If the “national team” of Italian bubbles triumphed at the “world of sparkling wines” “The Champagne & Sparkling Wine World Championships”, led by the Trentodoc “block” (26 gold medals out of 74 total), the “bomber”, to remain in football jargon, was once again Ferrari Trento, for the sixth time “top scorer”, or “Sparkling Wine Producer of the Year”, with no less than 9 gold medals (and 3 silver), as we have reported in recent days. And now, therefore, yet another award is made official, given to the winery that gets the most gold medals in the competition. | |
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| | Coop, a giant of Italian large-scale retail (€16.1 billion total sales in 2022), is betting big on wine. With a project that goes beyond the classic “private label”, becoming co-branding, clearly stated already on the label, in partnership with some of the most prestigious Italian (and not only) wineries, from Tommasi to Schiopetto, from Cantina Kurtatsch to Le Vigne di Zamò, from Volpe Pasini to Feudi di San Gregorio, from Planeta to Drei Donà-Tenuta La Palazza, from Cleto Chiarli to Rocca delle Macìe, from Sartori to Còlpetrone, from Fattoria del Cerro to Val delle Rose, from Marchesi di Barolo to Bolla, from Triacca to La Poderina, from Poggio al Tesoro to Cantine Florio, for the FiorFiore line, which has 38 references from all the most important territories in Italy, for as many partner wineries, plus 6 from all the top territories of France, from Bordeaux to Burgundy, via Provence, and from Moselle, Germany, to which will be added then, shortly, to cover the end-of-year festive period, 6 sparkling wines between Franciacorta (with Monogram Castel Faglia), Trentodoc (Monfort), Prosecco Docg (Bellussi), Prosecco Doc Rosè (Masottina, which marks in this way its entry into large-scale distribution, ed.), Alta Langa (Gancia) and Champagne (Maison De Venoge), and 28 labels for the “Assieme” line, dedicated to everyday wine, in partnership with large realities of the cooperative world. A project, which sees the collaboration of Ais (Italian Sommelier Association), and in line with the concept launched by Coop on own-brand product. The goal on wine, which for Coop moves 350 million euros in turnover overall, is to go from 7-8% to 15-18% of the offer (today more than 900 references) under its “hat”. Not by buying “masses of wine” from producers in order to bottle them under its own brand, but with a path that starts with a partnership in which Coop and the companies involved select the vineyards from which those wines, produced only for Coop, will be born, following a different vinification and marketing path from that of the companies’ other wines. As Francesco Scarcelli, Head of Bevarages Coop Italia, and Tiziana Sistelli, Innovation & Marketing in Store Manager Coop Italia, explain to WineNews (in more detail). | |
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| | Chianti is acting as spokesman for the demands and needs of the Italian wine industry in Europe, bringing to the table of the European Parliament two strategic issues for the future of the sector: access to credit for wineries and the nomenclature code. As the president of the Consorzio Vino Chianti, Giovanni Busi, who led the delegation to Brussels, along with director Marco Alessandro Bani, told WineNews, “access to credit is a fundamental issue for the world of wine, we need to guarantee, within the Basel Pact, different parameters for agriculture, because those who produce grapes, for example, do so once a year. With Mr. Paolo De Castro we talked about the nomenclature code that identifies Chianti on the world market, which is fundamental to have precise data on which to build our marketing actions”. | |
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| | | “Mr. Expedia” invests again in Montalcino: Peter Kern, vice chairman and ceo Expedia Group, the world leader in online travel, already owner of “Il Palazzone”, the “jewel” winery of Brunello di Montalcino, with his wife Kirsten, heart and core of the company together with his team, which already has 7 hectares under vine (at Due Porte, one of the highest points of the hill, and at Castelnuovo dell’Abate, a few steps away from the millenary Abbey of Sant’Antimo) acquired the vineyards and the estate of the neighboring “Albatreti” (a company with 5 hectares of vines, of which 1.7 of Brunello di Montalcino, 1 of Rosso and the rest of Sant’Antimo). An investment sought and wanted, WineNews learns, for a confidential amount (but for a hectare planted with Brunello today we speak of figures between 750,000 euros to 1 million euros, ed.), and that will enhance the production of “Il Palazzone”, which now thus has a total of 12 hectares of vines, of which just over 6 hectares are planted with Brunello, for a total production, potentially, between 50,000 and 60,000 bottles per year. An estate, “Il Palazzone”, which Kerner, a top manager of world renown, had purchased from “colleague” Richard Parsons, former economic adviser to U.S. President Barack Obama, and among the most famous American businessmen, formerly at the head of giants such as Time Warner and Citigroup. | |
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| | | “From the Pope to Sting, Riccardo Cotarella has invented and perfected the profession of global winemaker and flying winemaker. He and his team have advised countless wineries around the world, always elaborating on their individual terroir and character without lumping them together in terms of taste”. For these reasons, Riccardo Cotarella, president of Assoenologi and co-president of Union Internationale des Oenologues, was awarded the “Wine Awards 2023” for lifetime achievement by “Der Feinschmecker”. | |
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| | “$300,000 that will once again go to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation’s Mind’s Eye project, for the fifth consecutive year: this is the result of the auction of large formats, including double magnums, imperials and the unique 9-liter Salmanazar example, of Ornellaia “Vendemmia d’Artista” 2020, “La Proporzione”, auctioned at Sotheby’s, with the bottles and labels transformed into works of art by artist Joseph Kosuth. With the project linked to one of Italy’s and the Frescobaldi Group’s most iconic wines, which, in 15 editions, has raised and donated more than $2.5 million to various international museums. “Vendemmia d’Artista is now an essential event among collectors, crossing quality, beauty and solidarity”, commented Giovanni Geddes da Filicaja, CEO of Ornellaia. | |
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| | When Sicily’s centuries-old tradition is declined in the most innovative trends related to the geography of a territory’s wine: Tenuta Capofaro, the luxury hospitality project by Tasca d’Almerita - one of the island’s leading brands and among the best-known in Italy’s wine industry - won in London, for the second year in a row, the award for the category “The Most Original Wine List in Europe 2023”, by “The World of Fine Wine”, an authoritative trade publication. Thanks to the “direction” of Giulio Bruni, sommelier and manager Capofaro Locanda & Malvasia. | |
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