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Issue 572 - April 11th - 15th 2022 - Expressly created for 4.359 wine lovers,
professionals and opinion leaders from all over the world |
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In the territory of Etna, beacon of Sicilian wine, comes another excellent family of Italian wine, with the heart in Valpolicella, but wineries and vineyards in many of the most important territories of Italy. That is the Tommasi family, which, in order to celebrate the 120 years from the foundation of Tommasi Family Estates, as WineNews is able to anticipate, acquired an estate with 15 hectares of vineyards, cultivated with Nerello Mascalese and Carricante, for the production of Etna Rosso and Etna Bianco Doc appellations, in Contrada Le Chiuse del Signore at 570 meters above sea level, in the small town of Linguaglossa, in the Etna Natural Park. |
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In Europe, wine is engaged on many fronts, caught in the middle of the “friendly” fire of the European Plan for the Fight against Cancer on one side and of labeling on the other side. Two threats not to be taken lightly, because they are capable of putting in crisis an entire cultural model, that of the Mediterranean Diet, of which wine is a fundamental component. Finished, well beyond the scientific evidence, in the heap of a public debate that, while aiming at public welfare, ends up clumsily undermining the few certainties, defended, with the strength of reason and evidence, by some of the most important scholars of the Italian academic and scientific world, gathered, at “Vinitaly 2022”, by UIV (Unione Italiana Vini) and Federvini, in the round table “The culture of wine: a Mediterranean model”: Professor Andrea Poli of Nutrition Foundation of Italy, Professor Elisabetta Bernardi, nutritionist, biologist specialized in food science, and collaborator of “Superquark”, Professor Silvana Hrelia, Professor of Biochemistry at the Department of Sciences for the Quality of Life of the University of Bologna, Professor Francesco Visioli, nutritionist at the University of Padua, Professor Ernesto Di Renzo, Professor of Anthropological Disciplines at the Faculty of Medicine of the University Tor Vergata, and Ignacio Sànchez Recarte, Secretary General Comitée Vin. “We know very well the correlation between alcohol and health”, explains Professor Andrea Poli. “Already in 1997, the American Cancer Society explained to us that among teetotalers the mortality rate is identical to that recorded among drinkers, taking into account all causes of death”. “Wine best represents Mediterranean drinking, one of the most popular dietary models, whose beneficial effects are confirmed by dozens of studies”, says Elisabetta Bernardi. “Wine must be considered a liquid food”, adds Silvana Hrelia. “Everything we buy at the supermarket will have a label, which will tell us what is good and what is not”, comments Francesco Visioli. “Culture has an important voice in explaining the relationship we have with wine, a substance that is exceptional in itself”, says Professor Ernesto Di Renzo (all talks in-depth). |
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A trade fair increasingly oriented towards business, with a historic record for the incidence of foreign buyers in relation to total entries: 25,000 foreign operators (from 139 countries) represent 28% of the total (88,000). This is net of the very strong contraction - linked to pandemic restrictions on international travel - of arrivals from China and Japan, as well as Russian buyers, of course. Here is the outcome of “Vinitaly 2022”, that of the restart. “We are now looking ahead to 2023, with an event that is even more attentive to the logic of the market and the service and guiding function of the sector”, said the President of VeronaFiere, Maurizio Danese. While for Giovanni Mantovani, CEO of Veronafiere, “setting a record for the incidence of foreign buyers in such a difficult year in terms of the economic and geopolitical situation is anything but trivial”. |
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“Americans “have married” Italian food, including wine, and this is true on the side of the “mass market” with bottles of Pinot Grigio that sell a lot, for example, but it is also true from the side of artisanal productions, which is what interests me the most. There are so many different Italian wines and so many serious producers who have decided to conscientiously produce their wines that purely express the local cultures from all over Italy, and that American consumers find tremendously exciting”. This was said, during the connection from New York to “Vinitaly 2022” in Verona, by the famous wine critic of “The New York Times” Eric Asimov, who commented the current scenario in the USA, that is Italy’s first and most important wine market, thanks to the everlasting passion of American consumers for Italian wine. Exactly the great diversity of wines to which consumers today have access, “is the aspect that has changed the most in the world of wine in the last 30 years”, the famous journalist told at “WineMusic”, the evening event of the Grandi Cru Committee at the Philharmonic Theater of Verona, during the delivery of the “Premio Comitato Grandi Cru d’Italia” to Monica Larner, Italian reviewer for “Robert Parker – The Wine Advocate”, and to Gabriele Gorelli, the first Italian to achieve the title of Master of Wine. |
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From December 2023, wine too will be forced to communicate the ingredients on the label, just like all other agri-food products. With the QR Code, which offers the possibility to host, on a web page easily accessible to the consumer, every kind of information. To put an order, with a digital platform open to producers from all over Europe and the world, the U-Label project, signed by Ceev - Comité Vins and supported in Italy by Federvini and Unione Italiana Vini. |
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The vineyard which reached the highest score of 95 points out of 100 was Friulano Hrib of La Castellada winery in Friuli Venezia Giulia, whereas the winery with the highest number of vineyards was Bentu Luna in Sardinia, with five vineyards awarded, according to the Bigot Index. The index was created based on analyzing 9 parameters that take into account scientific literature and Giovanni Bigot’s over twenty years of experience in the field, in Italy and abroad. The eponymous Index has, for the first time ever, graded the highest quality potential vineyards for the 2021 vintage (at Vinitaly were selected the best 38 vineyards - out of the 734 on which calculations were based - which exceeded 90 cents according to the Bigot Index, created by the Friuli agronomist supported by his team at Perleuve). |
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Verona and “Vinitaly 2022” are the official starting point for the candidacy of the “Valpolicella Grape Drying Technique” (appassimento) as a Unesco Intangible Heritage. “This is a great opportunity for the development of the Denomination and the territory, for local economies and the enhancement of an inimitable processing technique. In all these years a winemaking technique has never been recognized, so this is a challenge”. These are the words of the President of the Veneto Region Luca Zaia at the official announcement of the Unesco nomination of the traditional technique of drying. |
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