If this message is not displayed correctly click here
|
Issue 551 - November 15th - 19th 2021 - Expressly created for 4.302 wine lovers,
professionals and opinion leaders from all over the world |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The best wine of the year according to “Wine Spectator” is Californian: at no. 1 of the most awaited “Top 100” there is the Napa Valley 2018 of Dominus Estate, one of the most prestigious wineries of the US wine. Therefore, two Italian wines remain (as in 2020) in the first 10 positions of the “Top 100” by Wine Spectator, namely Brunello di Montalcino 2016 “Le Chiuse”, at no. 5, and Barolo Bricco Boschis 2016 Cavallotto, at no. 8. A similar result, in positions and denominations, to last year’s (with San Filippo’s Brunello di Montalcino Le Lucerè 2015 at No. 3, and Massolino’s Barolo 2016 at No. 7). On Monday 22, the full rankings will be revealed. |
|
|
|
|
Considerably scarcer than average in terms of quantity, as was widely expected, but capable, in every region of Italy, of overcoming climatic excesses unscathed, providing healthy and beautiful grapes, balanced in terms of alcohol and acidity, and producing great wines. This is the 2021 vintage, in the words of the Italian producers to WineNews, and in the reports of the most important territories, with the grapes of the late varieties at the end of fermentation, and the vast majority of wines already racked. At the end of a very long harvest, which has taken so long, even within individual regions, everyone is feeling a sense of relief, after the scourge of the spring frosts and the drought that left the rows dry all summer, especially in Central and Southern Italy, before the beneficial rains in September, which accompanied the grapes in the last two weeks before the harvest, bringing balance to grapes that were not very generous in terms of yield, but very rich in content. It is difficult to define it in a single adjective, but the most appropriate one is perhaps “surprising”. The Consorzio Nebbioli Alto Piemonte is sending out positive signals from the territories, with production lower than in 2020, but with excellent expectations in terms of quality. In Monferrato, a lower harvest in terms of numbers, but with a high quality profile. For Asti Spumante and Moscato d’Asti, the large sparkling wine producers play a fundamental role, as the winemakers adjust their production to the requests of the producers, while in Franciacorta, the harvest reserved a 25% drop in production for classic method winemakers. An excellent phytosanitary state of the grapes and declining production among the rows of Pinot Grigio Doc of the Venezie, with Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco expecting sparkling wines of great freshness. In Montalcino, Brunello has put a slightly below-average harvest in the cellar, but of excellent quality. Sangiovese was also excellent in the small, nearby Montecucco, while the Primitivo di Manduria put a delayed but high-level 2021 harvest into the cellar, and in Sicily the harvest was saved from the peaks of heat by the months of August and September (the focus on Italy’s many top wineries in the in-depth). |
|
|
|
|
The Moccagatta family's Villa Sparina winery in Piedmont, one of the icons of the Gavi area, where one of Italy’s most historical and prestigious white wines is produced, is the “European Winery of the Year”; Santa Margherita USA, the importer arm of the Santa Margherita group, headed by the Marzotto family and CEO Beniamino Garofalo, one of the most important Italian wine producers (with wineries such as Santa Margherita, Kettmeir, Cà del Bosco, Mesa, Lamole di Lamole, Cà Maiol and others), is the “European Winery of the Year”: these are the verdicts of the “Wine Enthusiast’s Annual Wine Star Awards” 2021. Italy is also at the top of the spirits category, since Disaronno, the top brand of the Illva Saronno Holding group (which also controls Corvo, Duca di Salaparuta and Florio wineries in Sicily) is the “Spirit Brand/Distiller of the Year”. |
|
|
|
|
|
Shipments of Italian wine around the world in the period January-August 2021 reached almost 4.5 billion euros (4.496 billion to be precise), an increase of +15.5% over the same period in 2020 and, above all, +12.2% over 2019. Despite the boom in costs that continues to weigh on the entire supply chain, from energy to materials and transport - the first alarm bell of an inflationary dynamic that consumers will necessarily have to reckon with - the race of Italian wine on markets all over the world continues, with the exception, in 2019, of Great Britain, where there are still many unresolved knots in the long path of Brexit, and Japan, which is paying the price for the slowdown in its economy in the third quarter of the year, with declining industrial production, a logistics crisis and a clearly negative trade balance. Impressive, in a positive sense, are the figures for the United States, followed closely by Germany, the solid second place for Italian wine exports, with China now firmly back at the levels of 2019, while Canada, South Korea, Russia, the Netherlands and Sweden continue to grow exponentially (the figures, country by country, in the WineNews analysis of the latest ISTAT data, in more detail). |
|
|
|
|
|
With 98% of lots sold and proceeds of 1.9 million euro, Pandolfini’s sale on November 11 and 12 became the most important in the history of the auction house in the wine sector. At the top, the number one bottle of the legendary Quarto di Brenta of Barolo Monfortino Riserva Giacomo Conterno 1955, which closed at €23,275, the 12-litre of Barolo Falletto Riserva Serralunga d’Alba Bruno Giacosa 1996, from the collection of Daniel Thomases (€11,025), and a bottle of Romanée-Conti Domaine de la Romanée-Conti 2016 (€28,175). |
|
|
|
|
Montalcino too has its “vineyard in the town” and it is welcomed by its symbolic monument, the ancient Fortress. Where, for “Benvenuto Brunello” no. 30 (November 19-29), a vineyard celebrating the great vocation of the territory was planted with the first shoots of the “prince” vine on whose cultivation the history of Montalcino is based, and that has made it famous throughout the world thanks to the production of Brunello: Sangiovese, of which today it is the “home” par excellence. A project, not productive but ornamental, desired by the Municipality and “baptized” by the Consortium, with the students of the Professional Agrarian Institute, a detached “residence” in the Brunello territory of the “Bettino Ricasoli” Superior Institute of Siena. And which, in the future, also envisages the planting of Moscato Bianco shoots, the vine of Moscadello, the “historical wine” of Montalcino. |
|
|
|
|
Opening a “showroom” dedicated to some of the greatest Italian wines in the heart of Bordeaux: this is the project of the Frescobaldi group, one of the most important and historic realities of Italian wine. Which in 2022 will have an “address in Bordeaux” for some of its most prestigious estates, Masseto and Ornellaia, from Bolgheri, Tenuta Luce and Castelgiocondo, from Montalcino (all already distributed on “la Place de Bordeaux”) which, as the first Italian wineries to do so, will open a representative office “to strengthen their sales networks around the world”. |
|
|
|
|
