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Issue 669 - February 19th - 23rd 2024 - Expressly created for 4699 wine lovers,
professionals and opinion leaders from all over the world | |
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| | | Pietro Russo (consultant to the Rallo family’s Sicilian label, Donnafugata) is the first winemaker from Italy to become a Master of Wine, the prestigious title awarded by the world’s oldest organization dedicated to the knowledge and trade of wine. This brings to three - with Gabriele Gorelli and Andrea Lonardi - the number of Italians added to the small circle of super experts (there are less than 500 Masters of Wine in the world, from 31 different countries) capable of influencing the sector’s global business strategies, representing a wide variety of different professions, from journalist to academic, from winemaker to manager, from educator to sommelier. | |
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| | A very old debate that will probably never find a meeting point but is right to go on because science does not stop and, even on this issue, can always tell us something new and constructive. It concerns wine consumption, “demonized” by some and strongly defended by others, a topic that “heats up” even more at a time when it is declining, brought down also by new health styles. But what does science think about it? The issue was addressed in Brussels, in the conference “Moderate Wine Consumption & Mediterranean Diet”, which was attended by international experts, including Attilio Giacosa, professor of Gastroenterology and Digestive Endoscopy and Gastroenterologist at the Cdi of Milan and member of the Scientific Committee of Irvas who explains: “based on epidemiological studies, it has already been widely shown that a habitual and moderate consumption of wine throughout adult life, and combined with correct eating habits, is not harmful, and wanting to consider, in particular, the cause-effect relationship between a moderate intake of wine and health, it is absolutely correct to refer to the concept of the “J Curve”, in relation to science. Indeed, in multiple international studies, the relationship between alcohol consumption and mortality is identified with a “J” shaped curve. This curve shows that drinking wine in moderation reduces mortality compared to abstaining (the lower curve of the “J”), while mortality increases dramatically with increasing alcohol consumption (the vertical section of the “J”). This curve is used for Cv (cardiovascular, ed.) diseases and cognitive disorders. And it is crucial to remark how, in this case, the figure emerges from the comparison with both abstinence and abuse”. Closing the conference in Brussels, organized by Ice-Agency in collaboration with UIV, Lamberto Frescobaldi, president of UIV and at the head of one of the most important companies in Italian wine, the Frescobaldi Group, said: “according to WHO, today wine accounts for only 11.7% of the total alcohol consumed in the world, 44.8% is attributable to spirits and 34.3% to beer. This is an essentially moderate consumption model, especially in Italy”.
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| | The beauty and the good meet, once again, thanks to wine. It happens at Poggio Antico, one of the most beautiful wineries in the Montalcino area, on one of the highest hills, over 500 meters above sea level, with 35 hectares of vineyards (of which 28 are Brunello), acquired, in 2017, by the Belgian company Atlas Invest, founded by Marcel van Poecke. And that now, the “New Winery of Poggio Antico”, has called the No. 1 of Italian architects, on the subject of wineries, and not only, namely Marco Casamonti, already the signature of the celebrated Antinori winery in Chianti Classico, the most beautiful in the world for the “World’s Best Vineyards” in 2022, and then in the “Hall of Fame”. The presentation of the project (by invitation, WineNews will also be there, ed.) will be on March 1, in Florence, in the offices of the Presidency of the Region of Tuscany, with the participation of the president, Eugenio Giani. | |
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| | | Despite some difficulties in 2023, the United States is by far the leading market for Italian wine. After a record 2022, at €1.86 billion, 8.3% on 2021, in the first 11 months of 2023, imports to the U.S. stopped at €1.6 billion (down 6% on the same period in 2022, Istat data analyzed by WineNews). A negative figure, of course, but an improvement on the previous months, waiting for the official 12-month balance, and largely due to the large inventories made in the past year by U.S. importers, which now, according to many operators, are starting to unlock, albeit in a scenario that will most likely see smaller and more frequent orders over time. In any case, the U.S., which is a market made up of as many different markets as there are U.S. states, remains fundamental to the development of the global and Italian wine business. And making stops in two iconic cities in as many fast-rising states for Italian wine, returns the “Simply Italian Great Wines Americas Tour 2024” by Iem-International Exhibition Management, led by Marina Nedic and Giancarlo Voglino, which will be in Houston, Texas, on February 25 and 26, 2024, and then make its way to Miami, Florida, on February 28. | |
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| | | 134 zones in the appellation, meticulously demarcated by the “cartographer of wine”, Alessandro Masnaghetti. This is the first milestone in the zoning of Franciacorta, a territory that ranks at the top among the Italian appellations dedicated to classic method sparkling wine. And which presented the first “Map of the Vineyards and Zones of Franciacorta”. Zones that, the Consortium points out, do not carry with them any intent of classification, but help to identify and enhance homogeneous areas in terms of landscape, history, toponymy and tradition. | |
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| | Italian wine imports in its five main world markets slowed down in 2023. According to the Unione Italiana Vini (Uiv) Observatory, the final figures for imports from the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan (which, together, are worth 56% of the Italian total exports), for the made in Italy product, 2023 closed with a trend decline of 4.4% in volumes and -7.3% in values, to €4.45 billion (although overall, Istat data, analyzed by WineNews, relating to the whole world, in the first 11 months of 2023, tell of -0.6% in value, ed.) “Our country has a primary and no longer postponable need to broaden its customer base: these five countries account for almost 60% of the value of Italian exports, compared to 50% for France and 40% for Spain”, comments Lamberto Frescobaldi, president of Unione Italiana Vini (UIV). | |
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| | To revolutionize the world of wine, the winemakers of the Slow Wine Coalition, who adhere to the “Manifesto of good, clean and fair wine”, from all over the world, are coming back to meet in Italy at the “Slow Wine Fair” 2024 at Bolognafiere under the artistic direction of Slow Food, the “Woodstock of wine” as WineNews renamed it for the revolutionary spirit of this “movement” of 1,000 wineries and 5,000 wines that will be on tasting, and that through “good” viticulture wants to “produce” a new agriculture based on agroecology. | |
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