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Issue 793 - July 6th - 10th 2026 - Expressly created for 3698 wine lovers,
professionals and opinion leaders from all over the world | |
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| | | Italian wine is reinventing itself, thanks to the younger generations. “A young voice eager for change and innovation, without calling into question the values of the past”, says Gabriella Favara, the latest generation of the Donnafugata family and the new president of Assovini Sicilia, with a board of directors made up of members “under 40” - Pietro Pollara, Graziano Nicosia, Costante Planeta, Alessandro Tasca (Tasca d’Almerita), Cristina Madaudo (Camporé), Enrica Spadafora, Pierfilippo Marchello (Pellegrino), Toto Navarra - and which, founded by the “fathers” of the Sicilian wine renaissance, has propelled Sicily, where generations have always worked together to develop businesses and territories, to the top of the global wine scene. | |
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| | It is now a well-established fact that this prolonged period has been extremely challenging for the global and Italian wine sectors, due to a global context marked by “physical” and trade wars, an economy in distress everywhere, and a growing health-conscious trend. It is also a fact that, for Italian wine in particular, the “seriously ill patient”, yet an irreplaceable foreign partner, is the U.S. Yet, by focusing on other markets to expand the customer base and stem losses in the U.S., and by fostering even greater synergy among businesses, industry representatives, and institutions, while shifting our perspective, including on the CAP, which must increasingly prioritize development rather than income support, this critical phase, “which is neither the first nor the worst”, said the Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida, can be overcome. Provided that “bold choices” are made. That, essentially, was the message conveyed by the Unione Italiana Vini (UIV) assembly to the National Council for Economics and Labor (CNEL), where one of the central topics (under discussion) was the long-debated issue of supply regulation. For the organization led by Lamberto Frescobaldi, this involves halting the approval of new vineyards for the next two years and reducing yields, including for DOP and IGP wines, while the idea of grapevine grubbing-up financed with CMO funds should be ruled out. The UIV’s figures, after all, speak for themselves: despite three “light” harvests between 2023 and 2025, by May 2026, cellar stocks - including wine and must - exceeded 53 million hectoliters (up 7.3% from the May 2025 figure), the equivalent of an entire harvest sitting in the cellar. And while the market is slowing down both nationally (a 2% decline in large-scale retail sales from January to May 2026 compared to the same period in 2025) and internationally (exports in the first quarter of 2026 were down 4% by volume and 8.3% by value), downgrades are on the rise, meaning the reclassification of a wine into a lower category (for example, from DOCG to DOC, from DOC to IGT, or to table wine). This has resulted in a significant loss in value: 364 million euros (10%) for DOP wines and 152 million euros (14%) for IGP wines, for a total decrease of 516 million euros, or 11%. | |
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| | Even amid a challenging period for the wine industry, there are those who continue to invest with conviction and determination in the sector’s future. The most recent example of this is Mack & Schühle Italia, the Italian division of the German group founded in 1939, led by sole director Fedele Angelillo, who has committed a full 16 million euros “for the expansion and modernization of the Laterza (Taranto) facility,” with a focus on sparkling wine production and dealcoholization. The No-Lo wine segment is one in which Mack & Schühle Italia ranks among the Italian companies most firmly committed to it. To support this investment, in June 2026, Mack & Schühle Italia secured a total of 12 million in financing from BdM Banca and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, backed by a Sace guarantee. | |
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| | | The 2026 grape harvest is approaching, but Italian wineries have more than an average vintage’s worth of wine in stock (49.1 million hectoliters as of May 31, 2026), and many regions have already adopted or are in the process of adopting measures to limit supply, primarily through yield reductions. Among others, the Consorzio Toscana Igt has submitted a request to the Region of Tuscany to reduce yields by 20%: from 170 to 136 quintals per hectare for white wines and from 160 to 128 for reds. This is a path already taken by other Tuscan consortia: Brunello di Montalcino has cut yields from 80 to 70 quintals per hectare (excluding the first hectare), Chianti has confirmed a 20% cut, while Chianti Classico has requested a reduction from 75 to 65 quintals per hectare or the downgrading of an equivalent quantity of wine. In Veneto, Valpolicella had already approved a reduction from 120 to 100 quintals per hectare; Soave reduced the area eligible for DOC status by 50%; and Pinot Grigio delle Venezie cut yields to 160 quintals. In Piedmont, the Barolo Barbaresco Alba Langhe and Dogliani Consortium approved a 10% cut for Langhe Nebbiolo and Barbera d’Alba DOC, while Barbera d’Asti reduced its yield from 90 to 85 quintals per hectare. | |
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| | | Vinitaly.Usa 2026 is heading to New York aboard the Amerigo Vespucci, which was among the stars of the official celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of U.S. Independence in recent days. There, Veronafiere President Federico Bricolo presented the third edition of the American event (October 26–27, in the Big Apple), which is already nearly sold out (with major participants, including the Consortia of Asti DOCG, Brunello di Montalcino, DOC Sicilia, and Prosecco DOC, to the Consorzio Italia del Vino, and the collective pavilions of Friuli-Venezia Giulia and ITA-Italian Trade Agency, among others). | |
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| | Thanks to Italy’s most prestigious wines, which lead the way, as well as those from Burgundy, the first half of 2026 saw positive growth, albeit modest, for the fine wine market tracked by Liv-Ex, the leading platform for the global secondary market and wine collecting. Looking at the indices, as analyzed by WineNews, the Liv-Ex 100 lost nearly all the growth it had achieved in the first four months of the year, closing the half-year with a slight but still positive +0.1% year-to-date. Several Italian labels stand out, with the strongest growth coming from Bruno Giacosa’s Barolo Falletto Vigna Le Rocche Riserva 2016 (+19.2% in 2026). The Liv-Ex 1000 fared slightly better, at +0.4%, thanks mainly to the acceleration in Italian wines. In fact, the best-performing index overall, with a +1.9% gain year-to-date, is the Italy 100 (see below for a closer look at its components). | |
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| | The “Italian Genius” wines are traveling fast on Italo trains: a selection of wines from Leonardo da Vinci Spa, part of Tenute Caviro (a company owned by the Caviro Group, Italy’s largest wine cooperative), will be available on Italo’s high-speed trains, both on board and in the Italo Club Lounges (with a dedicated wine list featuring Sangiovese Superiore Riserva Romagna DOC, Chianti Riserva DOCG, and Vermentino Toscana IGT). | |
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