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Issue 736 - June 2nd - 6th 2025 - Expressly created for 3703 wine lovers,
professionals and opinion leaders from all over the world | |
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| | | If wine is an excellence of made in Italy, it is not surprising that the list of its great standard bearers who are awarded the title of Cavaliere del Lavoro (Knight of Labor) is lengthening year by year. That, with the decree signed by President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, now also includes Vittorio Moretti, one of Italy’s most successful entrepreneurs, at the head of the Terra Moretti Group, which includes the Bellavista, Contadi Castaldi, Sella & Mosca, Teruzzi and Petra wineries. And Piero Mastroberardino, at the helm of the historic family winery and one of Campania's wine flagships. | |
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| | The color that bewitches the eyes, the aromas that intoxicate, the taste that envelops the mouth: this is how the wine experience is born. And then comes the sip, or rather the swallowing, with the wine flowing down the throat, now warming it, now refreshing it, at one time caressing it with elegance and delicacy, another overwhelming it with power and opulence, leaving in the mind the more or less fleeting memory of what has been drunk. A fundamental aspect, that of swallowing, without which, according to many, much of the sense of tasting wine is lost. Of course, it is impossible, or at least very difficult, for those who have to taste so many wines in battery, to swallow even a single sip of 50, 100 or even more wines: one’s health, and not only, is at stake. Yet, as we have veered to “drink less but better”, one wonders if we should not also “taste less but better,” where better means more thoroughly, completely, and thus swallowing (wine, after all, is made to be drunk, and thus swallowed), which means tasting fewer wines. A topic that WineNews put to authoritative names in the industry, such as Jacky Rigaux, promoter of “geosensory” tasting; Roberto Conterno, at the helm of Giacomo Conterno, winery-myth of Langhe and cradle of the legendary Barolo Monfortino Riserva; and Lydia and Claude Bourguignon, among the world’s most successful agronomic consultants (in more detail). “I, too, when I have to taste 100-150 wines, I have to spit. But when I taste wines close to being bottled, those I don’t, those I drink, because otherwise”, Conterno explains, “the final part of the tasting, which is fundamental, is missed. Drinking the wine is absolutely important to fully understand it”. “The texture of the wine is very important, and to understand it you also have to swallow, to understand the sense of terroir”, say Lydia and Claude Bourguignon. “To really perceive all the qualities of a wine you have to swallow it, swallow it”, says Rigaux, “it is in the mouth that the essential message of wine comes. Because wine is a food, it is made for our pleasure, you have to appreciate it by swallowing it, so you should say: stop smelling and spitting, to understand wine, to appreciate it you have to touch it, feel it, swallow a few sips”. | |
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| | Returning to a more “friendly” and popular consumption, less hedonistic and “noble”, eliminating or reducing so many superstructures that, if in the past they helped wine grow, today are perhaps crushing it; making less “liturgy”, less “tannin scenography”, and more experiences of cultural value, where wine is not “the” protagonist, but a companion to food, a facilitator of dialogue and not the object of conversation, a key that opens the doors of a territory and not the destination of the journey. Always keeping in mind the economic theme, with the purchasing power of families and people declining in so many markets around the world, and mark-ups from cellar to shelf, and even more so at the restaurant, that do not help in consumption. Reflections shared with Lorenzo Tersi, longtime observer of the wine world and founder and ceo LT Wine & Food Advisory. | |
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| | | The first outlet market for Italian wine in Asia, in 2024 it was worth 184 million euros (+0.5%), out of a continental total of 434 million euros, and is proving increasingly strategic for the wine industry (and in general for all agribusiness) made in Italy. This is Japan, the scene of Expo Osaka 2025, and which shares not only a commercial link with Italy, but also a cultural one: “the Japanese are very attentive and demanding, and this applies to wine as to all Italian products. It is one of the countries in the world most capable of understanding the added value of our agri-food”, said Luigi Scordamaglia, ceo Filiera Italia, at the conference “Market Trends and Opportunities for Italian Wine in Asia”, at the Italian Pavilion at the Expo, organized by the Ice Agency and Veronafiere to make a reflection on the Japanese market, between opportunities and trends to follow, in the presence of Federico Bricolo, president Veronafiere, the Minister of Agriculture Francesco Lollobrigida, Massimiliano Giansanti, president Confagricoltura, Marzia Varvaglione, president Ceev, Francesca Migliarucci of Federvini, Stefano Bottega, Lamberto Frescobaldi, president Unione Italiana Vina, Diva Moretti Polegato of Villa Sandi, Nadia Zenato and Vera Malisiani of Ethica Wines. | |
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| | | One of the longest-running and most influential partnerships between wine, art and solidarity is back in the spotlight: the large formats of edition No. 17 of Ornellaia’s Vendemmia d’Artista project, with the 2022 vintage at its center, whose character is “The Determination”, interpreted by Cameroonian artist Pascale Marthine Tayou: 14 rare lots, including the Imperials and the Salmanazar, hand-signed by the artist himself, will be sold by Bonhams (online auction June 12-24). Proceeds will still go to support the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. | |
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| | “Music is dangerous, as are all profoundly beautiful things: they change us, sometimes bewitching us with beauty, like teenage love affairs”, and “how dangerous can be our encounters with that beauty that has the power to change us inside”: words of Oscar-winner Nicola Piovani, among the greatest musicians ever, who, on July 25, with the Nicola Piovani Orchestra, will be at “Jazz & Wine in Montalcino” 2025, among the longest-running events on the international music scene, and the most historic and important Italian wine “company festival” signed Banfi, the leading Brunello company, in a concert in collaboration with WineNews. And who is among the “bigs” on stage at the Festival (July 22-27) with Kenny Barron, Enrico Pieranunzi, Malika Ayane, Fabrizio Bosso, Javier Girotto and Avishai Cohen. | |
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| | The production of dealcolatized or partially dealcolatized wines in Italy, among supporters and detractors, can finally become a reality: published the decree signed by the Minister of Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida, which overcomes one of the biggest stumbling blocks encountered to date, namely the need to have separate premises for production. Now, in fact, as explained in the amendment to Decree No. 672816 of Dec. 20, 2024, prior notification to the Icqrf will suffice. | |
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