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Issue 441 - October 7th - 11th - Expressly created for 11.897 wine lovers,
professionals and opinion leaders from all over the world |
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The 2015 vintage of Brunello di Montalcino, which will enter the market in 2020, seems to be one of those destined to remain in history. James Suckling, one of the most listened to voices of international critics, is convinced of this. Among the 187 Brunello di Montalcino, half of them obtained scores above 95 points, and 11, according to the critic, were judged perfect, by 100/100, produced by wineries such as Canalicchio di Sopra, Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona Brunello, Eredi Fuligni, Giodo (Carlo Ferrini), Luce della Vite, Renieri, San Filippo Brunello di Montalcino, San Polo (Allegrini), Siro Pacenti, Talenti and Valdicava. |
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A vintage from another time with the white grapes almost all harvested, and in many cases already in the highlight of the fermentation in the cellars of the main areas of vocation white-washed Belpaese. Collio and Soave, Gavi and Verdicchio, Lugana and Sardinia, Bolgheri and Umbria, South Tyrol and Sicily all share different elements. First of all, the seasonal trend, which in the vineyard has brought the hands of time back at least a couple of decades: the cold of May has blocked the maturation of the grapes, delaying the time by a couple of weeks or more than in recent years, with the harvest that in some territories, such as Etna and Friuli, not yet completed. The summer was not too hot, capable of guaranteeing significant temperature ranges, brought grapes to the cellar, perfect in terms of health, with good acidity, in balance with the sugars. Quantities decrease, both in the vineyard and in the cellar: generally smaller bunches and thick-skinned grapes offer lower than average yields, but this does not seem to be a problem, especially in the face of an even excessive 2018 vintage, which has had negative repercussions in terms of average prices. Here is the panorama of the 2019 vintage, reported to WineNews by some of the protagonists of the main territories: from Cantina di Soave to Gini in Soave with the first cru harvest, characterized by a great recovery in quality in recent weeks, from Venica & Venica in Collio to Zorzettig in the Colli Orientali del Friuli, in a region that is getting ready for a vintage to be remembered over time for the balance and health of the grapes, from Consorzio del Gavi, where 2019 will give wines with significant aromatic profiles, to Zenato in Lugana, where the rain guaranteed a balanced seasonal trend, from Siddùra in Sardinia, where time seems to have gone back decades, to Antinori, between Umbria and Bolgheri, where the watchword is “balance”, from Planeta in Sicily, where quantity gives room to quality, to Umani Ronchi and Villa Bucci, in Verdicchio, where the first data are already reassuring. |
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Memories. Enough to write not a book, but an encyclopedia, or even a historical atlas, of Italian wine, capable of retracing the last half-century of Italy’s wine, among stumbles, challenges, difficulties, but also many achievements. And who better than Angelo Gaja, the volcanic dean of wine in Italy, could “afford” such a story? Which starts in the second half of the sixties, “when Italian wines in the U.S. were priced below the minimum price of the French”, and it goes right up to the present day, with “the challenge of climate change in the vineyard, because beyond the media excesses I’m with Greta”, passing through a veritable Olympus of personal myths, where there is a place for Giacomo Tachis, Carlo Petrini, Bruno Giacosa, Aldo Conterno and Bartolo Mascarello … |
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Albiera Antinori (Guado al Tasso), Priscilla Incisa della Rocchetta (Sassicaia) and Cinzia Merli (Le Macchiole): here is the all-female trio ready to lead the Consortium for the Protection of Bolgheri Wines, the Denomination is riding the crest of the wave and representing Italian wine around the world on a par with giants like Brunello di Montalcino and Barolo. This is a good news for the entire sector because it demonstrates that, once again, in case it still needed to be reiterated, reality travels faster than norms and rules. Regardless of the “pink quotas”, Bolgheri will be “governed” by top-level women: Albiera Antinori, new president of the Consortium of Bolgheri Wines, is the heiress to the most ancient Italian wine dynasty, while the vice presidents are Priscilla Incisa della Rocchetta, niece of Mario, to whom we owe the creation of Sassicaia and the birth of the legendary Bolgheri, and Cinzia Merli, who has been working in the territory since 1983, and in just over thirty years has conquered both critics and wine lovers with Le Macchiole wines. Behind them is a story of pioneering and winemaking freedom, in front of them, instead, there is a story yet to be told, between quality and markets. |
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From the Roman Period, through Late Antiquity all the way up until the Middle Ages: if it is true that the first bottle of Franciacorta was produced in 1961, history tells us a different reality, in which the vine, as in the great wine territories of Italy and Europe, has been cultivated since ancient times. A fascinating story of the historian Gabriele Archetti in the “The origins of Franciacorta in the Italian Renaissance”, presented by the president of the Consorzio of Franciacorta Silvano Brescianini. |
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With a consistent +5.15% since the beginning of the year, Italy 100, the index dedicated to the fine wines of the Belpaese, confirms the solidity of the growth of the most prestigious Italian labels, with the index formed by the most recent physical years of Sassicaia, Masseto, Solaia, Tignanello, Ornellaia, Barbaresco by Gaja, Barolo Monfortino Riserva and Barolo Cascina Francia by Giacomo Conterno, Guado al Tasso and Redigaffi by Tua Rita, monitored by the benchmark of the secondary market Liv-Ex, which also confirms its highest performance in 2019, with all other indices falling, except for Champagne. Data updated at the end of September 2019, in which for Italy there is another record: on the Liv-Ex 100, the reference index of the platform, the best performer, in terms of price increase, is Sassicaia 2015, which grew by +5.2% between August and September. |
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More and more international, more and more digital, more and more cultural, because to consolidate the mature markets and open new ones, it is necessary to do training and culture of Italian wine. The future of Vinitaly. The great debut stands out, in 2020, of “Wine to Asia”, in Shenzhen (9-11 November), the first wine event organized by an Italian fair in Asia (in partnership with the Chinese agency Pacco Communication Group).
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