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Issue 730 - April 21st - 25th 2025 - Expressly created for 3698 wine lovers,
professionals and opinion leaders from all over the world | |
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| | | As was to be expected, Italy’s wine exports got off to a strong start, driven by a +19% increase from the United States, strongly driven by the desire to anticipate what would later be the tariff issue, which, as of January 2025, shows a +7.5% increase in value (to 578.6 million euros) and +1.9% in volume (153.5 million liters). With sparkling wines at 150.4 million (+5.7%). A figure, the one updated, in recent days, by Istat and analyzed by WineNews, which should not suggest that the market difficulties are behind us, but is an encouraging sign, after the record-breaking 2024, with 8.1 billion euros (+5.5% over 2023, ed.).
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| | The good start of Italian wine exports in 2025 is tied in double-strand to the United States, the first market by value ever. But all of North America is growing well, including with Canada, and Old Europe is also showing positive data, according to Istat data for January, analyzed by WineNews. Looking at the individual markets, as mentioned, it emerges how the growth is all or almost all attributable to the U.S., which imported wine for 162.5 million euros (+19.3%), although, it must be said, the increase in quantity in the States, at +4.1% (for 26.9 million liters), is much smaller, albeit noticeable. But Germany, at +5.3%, for 89.1 million, as well as the United Kingdom, at +3.7%, for 50.8 million, also started growing. And growth in Canada is also strong, posting a robust +23%, at 34 million euros, while, back in Old Europe, Switzerland is up slightly, at +2.5%, for 29.7 million euros, and showing interesting signs is France, at +6.1%, for 19.3 million euros. Exports to Belgium are also off to an energetic start, with a nice +13.1%, at 18 million euros. Looking East, however, a good start to the year in Japan, at 11.7 million euros (+11.3%), is countered by yet another decline in China, at just over 6 million euros (-16.8%). And after 2024 closed with a resounding +45.6% over 2023, Russia is also off to a sharply downward start, at -53.5% in January 2025 over the same month 2024, for 9.1 million. A good start, then, overall, which easily, when the data for February, and especially March-April, months in which a freeze on imports to the U.S. first materialized, after Trump’s threat of 200% duties, and a slow restart then, with duties “frozen” at 10% since early April, will be scaled back. Waiting and hoping for a thawing of the economic picture, especially on the US-EU axis, where work is being done on an agreement that, at least in words, seems closer, according to what the U.S. President, Donald Trump, himself said after the meeting at the White House in Washington with Italian PM, Giorgia Meloni, waiting for a real and concrete dialogue with the European Union leadership.
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| | From 3D tastings, with glasses to visit vineyards while tasting wine, to pilates and painting among the rows, to astro-tasting, the phenomenon of wine tourism in Italy is growing, with an expected increase of 10%, according to an analysis by Coldiretti and Terranostra. Driving the phenomenon is, above all, the push for innovation that comes from wineries, which are able to intercept the demand toward an increasingly experiential type of tourism of Italians and foreigners: thus, activities ranging from art to sports to wellness have been added to traditional tastings. “Only wine producers can authentically tell the naturalness of their product: they know every stage, from the vineyard to the bottle, and they guard its history, territory and passion”, emphasizes Dominga Cotarella, president of Terranostra. | |
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| | | “In terms of the number of companies involved, the quality of production and the impact on employment, yours is certainly a significant reality, both on the Italian and international wine scene, and it is therefore good that you find yourselves reflecting together on the ethical aspects and moral responsibilities that all this entails, and that in this you draw inspiration from the Poverello of Assisi. The fundamental lines along which you have chosen to move, concern for the environment, work and healthy consumer habits, point to an attitude centered on respect, at various levels. And respect, in your work, is certainly fundamental: for a quality product, in fact, the application of industrial techniques and commercial logic is not enough; the land, the vine, the processes of cultivation, fermentation and aging require constancy, they require attention and they require patience”. These are Pope Francis’ words to the Italian wine received, on January 22, 2024, at a Private Audience at the Vatican with the Diocese of Verona and Veronafiere-Vinitaly (WineNews was there, ed.). “Jesus speaks of the Father as a farmer, who cares for the vine”, he recalled, and “wine, the earth, agricultural skill and entrepreneurial activity are gifts from God”, which the Creator has entrusted to us “so that we may make them a true source of joy for the human heart”. | |
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| | | From May 5 to 11, the Consorzio Vino Chianti launches the No. 1 edition of “Chianti Lovers Week”, a week of widespread events (40 in all) that will bring Chianti Docg to the streets, venues, places of culture and conviviality in Florence and Tuscany. A “new and dynamic way to tell the identity of one of the most iconic Italian wines, including tastings, immersive experiences and contaminations with cinema, art and music”, explained the Consortium, which has received the response of many realities ready to celebrate Chianti.
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| | The world’s first stopper produced from recycled plastic collected along the coasts of Asia and destined to end up in the oceans (Ocean Bound Plastic), contributing to the reduction of marine pollution, the “Nomacorc Ocean” is a candidate to be the contemporary wine stopper. The philosophy of which, for Mack & Schühle Italia, among the Italian wine bigwigs with a 2024 turnover of more than 200 million euros, is encapsulated in the Grapur project, an organic, veg and low-alcohol (9% vol) wine, without dealcolation processes and with a low caloric intake, which combines innovation responsibility and collaboration of the supply chain, from vineyard to cap at Vinventions, to support a more conscious and environmentally friendly consumption, and in response to the needs of the new generation of consumers, attentive to quality, but also to the environmental impact of their choices. | |
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| | The difficulties imposed by climate change in the vineyard force producers to find effective solutions that change the way they work and help improve the quality of wines, and vineyards. This is according to Giovanni Bigot, creator of the Bigot Index, which, through 9 evaluated indicators ranks the best vineyards by quality potential. This year, in a vintage considered to be among the most climatically complex, 94 vineyards reached the highest quality peaks in a list compiled after analyzing more than 4,000 plots. | |
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