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Issue 373 - June 18th-22th - Expressly created for 11.897 wine lovers,
professionals and opinion leaders from all over the world |
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Massimo Bottura, chef and core of the three Michelin stars Osteria Francescana in Modena, has returned to the highest step on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2018, universally recognized as the world’s most influential ranking, on stage last night at the Palacio Euskalduna in Bilbao. Right behind Bottura, in second place, El Celler de Can Roca (Spain), followed by Mirazur (France). Bottura is not the only chef to hold up the exceptional state of Italian haute cuisine: Enrico Crippa (Piazza Duomo in Alba) has taken position n. 16, the Alajmos (Le Calandre di Rubano), the 23, and Niko Romito (Il Reale di Castel di Sangro), has gone up to 36. |
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The only town in Italy where wine is not produced is Forte dei Marmi, therefore, it has become the ideal town to talk about wine. “VinoVip”, the wine show organized by Civiltà del Bere, in its twentieth year has been presented in a maritime version, “VinoVip al Forte”, held in the dreamy atmosphere of the Versilia Riviera and in its historical locales like the Capannina and the Bistrot Restaurant. The wine show, usually held in the equally exclusive atmospheres of Cortina d’Ampezzo, today highlighted the pairing, “Wine & Money”. The lectures and discussions were led by such elite expert names as Angelo Gaja and Attilio Scienza, who traced the development of the Italian wine sector and the history of its trade through case histories of some of the top Italian wine brands - Antinori, Marquis of Barolo, Tasca d’Almerita, Zenato, Bortolomiol, Siddùra, Masciarelli, Mastroberardino that their protagonists narrated, including talks by Denis Pantini, head of Nomisma Wine Monitor, and the American wine economist, Mike Veseth. Price dynamics were the common thread in comparisons, especially Angelo Gaja’s speech, which recalled that, “up to 25 years ago the gap between the prices of Italian and French wines was very high. The first winemaker to raise Italian prices was Biondi Santi, who was almost ridiculed for doing so. We are still behind today, particularly on the distribution network. However, from the point of view of the fair, and the possibility that Paris will replace the Vinexpo in Bordeaux, we are actually stronger, even though we do need something new and different, like a biennial fair in Milan. Further”, added Gaja, “climate change will be much more problematic for France than for us”. Speaking of climate change, Attilio Scienza said it is what frightens us most, and that “fear is a pervasive element in our life, it has been a constant throughout history, but innovation also arises out of fear. Now we are afraid of climate change, but we have all the tools to tackle it, as well as the need to create vines that are capable of resisting drought. The future lies in working with genetics to create new plants that are able to tolerate the heat and use less water”. |
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“We have found in the territories of the most important wines in the world where we are called to intervene that the most prestigious brands more and more want to protect and improve the old vines, so that even the youngest vines will be able to reach the same age, and at the same time maintain their physiologic, anatomic and productive capacity as well as quality potential. That is to say, long-life but healthy plants, capable of resisting disease and decay due to poor management and incorrect pruning, and obviously, climate change. I assure you that this can be done”. These are the words the Grape Preparer Marco Simonit, the only Italian among the prominent international speakers, pronounced in front of 400 Masters of Wine, as he told WineNews, at the International Symposium of the English Institute, recently in La Roja. |
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Italian wine companies are more and more aware of the impact of social medias and the digital world. They prefer using social networks to monitor their companies’ web sites, which have now become a sort of business card. The study carried out by the communication strategies consulting firm FleishmanHillard Omnicom PR Group Italia, “The digital taste of Italian wine” 2018, highlights that digital improves the quality of websites, as well as social media coverage, with Facebook and Instagram at the top, while Twitter’s specific weight is on a decline, and Youtube is stable. Almost everyone has outsourced E-commerce for the benefit of specialized and general portals. English and German are the most used foreign languages, local grapevines and sustainability are the rising contents, while waiting for chats and SEO to improve and block chains to take hold, which are a great opportunity for certifications. What, then, is the turnover performance, individually, for the top 33 Italian companies on the web? The “best” is once again Frescobaldi, ahead of the Prosecco Mionetto brand and the Venetian Masi Agricola, which is tied with Antinori, followed by Zonin, and again Villa Sandi, the top names of Trentino cooperative Mezzacorona and Cavit and Banfi. |
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A record auction has become an overused, almost abused definition, but it is hard to find a more fitting one for the the most recent wine sales at Christie’s auction in New York, which has sold 923 lots for a total of 3.2 million euros. The number one lot, 12 bottles of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Montrachet 1990, sold for 88.000 euros, while the absolute best result for Italy was the 6 magnum lot of Bruno Giacosa, Barolo Reserve, Le Rocche del Falletto of Serralunga d’Alba 2000, which sold for 4.450 euros. |
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The number one reason tourists travel to Italy on holidays is Made in Italy food and wine, which alone attracts 1 in 4 tourists (22.3% Italians and 29.9% foreigners), which is more than the wealth of our cultural heritage and the various events proposed. It has been estimated that in 2017 the number of visitors related to food and wine tourism was over 110 million and their economic impact exceeded 12 billion euros - 15.1% of the total for tourism), the third spending item after accomodations (24 billion euros) and restaurants/bars /cafes (over 17.4 billion euros) - but Italians spent more than foreigners (7.3 billion euros compared to 4.9 billion). These are the numbers from Isnart-Unioncamere, the first Food & Wine Tourism Forum at Castello di Grinzane Cavour. |
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According to ISTAT, the Italian statistics agency data prepared by the agrifood market services, ISMEA and published by the UIV Wine Observatory, in the period January-March 2018 Italian wine exports grew + 4.5% in value (1.38 billion euros), while instead there was a sharp decline, equal to 9% less in volume, down to 4.5 million hectoliters. The reason for this collapse in export volumes is the 32.6% decrease shown in sales of table wines, which in 2017 suffered a decline in production and a consequent increase in prices. |
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