Brunello, Banfi and Us Dollars

At the beginning of the Seventies the small Tuscan village of Montalcino, near Siena, was considered a depressed area. Today, more than thirty years later, Brunello di Montalcino Docg and Rosso di Montalcino Doc sell respectively about 6,3 and 4,7 million bottles per year, and this small village is known worldwide. It is estimated that three fifths of Brunello di Montalcino are exported, and that 25% of the production goes to the United States, followed by Germany (10%). One of the chief character of this "revolution" is without doubt Ezio Rivella, to whom the New York family Mariani conferred the mandate to create the Castello Banfi winery. This adventure is now told in a book written by Ezio Rivella himself, titled "Brunello, Montalcino and I: the Prince of wine's true story", that is going to published in the Usa. Before giving birth to Castello Banfi, the two brothes John and Harry Mariani were the importers of Cantine Riunite Lambrusco wine in the Usa, while Ezio Rivella was working as technical and commercial Director for a wine coop, and had founded an engineering and consulting wine company. Since 1977 Rivella began to buy, piece by piece, a series of contiguous farms near Montalcino, and six years later he reached almost 3.000 hectares' land, with the medioeval Poggio alle Mura castle in the middle. With the financial aid of John and Harry Mariani, Ezio Rivella built a technologically advanced cellar, able to vinify at least 100.000 quintals of grapes per year. His plan to build from scratch the largest winery in Montalcino, and one of the most important in Italy, provoked a local rejection similar to that caused by the arrival of Mondavi in the south of France, but Rivella at the end won the battle.

Yes: Castello Banfi has recently added small amounts of international grapes (Merlot) to its Brunello di Montalcino wine (100% Sangiovese), as Antinori, Frescobaldi, Argiano and others have done. But that's only one chapter of a long history, that started with Ferruccio Biondi Santi in 1888. A more recent protagonist of this saga is the Italo/American family Mariani, that with Ezio Rivella founded Castello Banfi at the end of the Seventies. The first move was a big mistake: Banfi, in fact, focused its attention on Moscadello frizzante, a sweet slightly fizzy white wine, and wanted to sell it in the Usa to reply to the success of the Lambrusco. Banfi even asked the other growers, during an open city board meeting, to replace their Sangiovese in favor of the Moscadello, promising to buy the grapes from them. At the end Banfi eradicated the Moscadello and planted Sangiovese. Every successful winery hides at least one mistake behind it...

Marsala struggling to rejuvenate

Marsala Doc is trying to relaunch its image, and to attract new consumers. This Sicilian fortified wine's appellation, in fact, has always been dominated by large commercial houses, and in the past its average quality decreased to a very low level. Today things are changing, thanks to a better integration between viticulture and production, a more diversified offer, and a succesful product innovation. To help wineries going ahead in this direction the Consorzio Vino Marsala Doc has ordered a market research to Astra, that was aimed at deepening the relationship between the Italians and this fortified wine, whose production in 2007 was 70.000 hectolitres, with a turnover of 16,5 million euros. According to the Astra market research, 77% of the 22 million Italian wine consumers knows the Sicilian Doc, but only 42% can identify the different typologies (Fine, Superiore, Superiore Riserva, Vergine, Secco, Semisecco, Dolce,...). The Marsala wine consumer is most often male, aged between 45 and 54, and is a frequent Internet user. About half of the consumers choose to drink Marsala more or less once a month, while the other half is divided between those who consume it several times a month and those who taste it only once a year. About 66% of the respondents thinks that the Marsala price is fair, while another 10% believes it is too low (!). Another research, conducted by the University of Palermo, and edited by Prof. Sebastiano Torcivia, discovered that are 110 Marsala Doc labels on the market, and that 73% of the total volume bottled is distributed by supermarkets, 18% by hotels and restaurants, and 9% by direct sales. About 31% of the total production is exported, and the main foreign markets are the Usa, Uk, Germany, Switzerland, Canada and Japan.

We can learn some interesting lessons from the Marsala history. The first one is that leaving an appellation only in the hands of large commercial houses can be very risky, because competition tends to focus on price only. The second one is that an appellation should have no more than 2/3 typologies, otherwise confusion is inevitable.

Lambrusco's revolution?

Alicia Lini is featured in this month's issue of Men's Vogue. In the June/July edition of the men's style magazine, noted author and wine enthusiast Lawrence Osborne profiles the Lini company and in particular Alicia - the international face of Lini and its fourth-generation Lambrusco producer. He describes fondly a dinner held in Lini's honor at the New York restaurant Centovini back in March, and "praises Alicia's movie star appeal, indeed likening the young producer to Sophia Loren". Osborne also assesses the success of Lini's Lambruscos and their vital role in resurrecting a somewhat "socially tarnished variety, helping erase memories of the "ghastly party plonk" consumed by millions of Americans in the late-1970s". For Lini, the negative label was hard to shake off. "It's taken ten years for people to realize we didn't make that awful stuff," she says. Now Osborne feels the transition is finally complete. "In the past couple of years, [Lambrusco's] image has undergone a surprising revolution," he notes. "The sugary spritzer of our summery youth has become a dry, elegant dinner wine of our middle age."

(adapted from http://vinonyc.wordpress.com/2008/05/19/alicia-lini-in-mens-vogue/)

Producers can become excellent testimonials for their wines. Especially if they look like Mrs Lini, and they appear in Men's Vogue... In the afterwar period Italian wine was promoted by serious winemakers with glasses in their hands, while now it's time to let young people talk directly to new consumers (newbies), without intimidating them. At this proposal you can also look at the "Primo amore" brand's advertising, where Francesco Zonin, vice president of the Italian wine company, acts again as a testimonial.

Bubbles all year long

About 75% of Italian sparkling wines' consumption are still concentrated in December, but things are slowly changing. In January and February 2007, for example, the neck labels applications to the Franciacorta consortium were 100% higher than in the same period during the previous year. The neck labels are given to the wineries, and are required for the wine release to the market. In 2007 the total production of Franciacorta, a wine country located in the heart of Lombardy, amounted to 8.367.061 bottles, with an increase of 24% over 2006. Last year seven new bottlers and 19 new growers joined the Docg consortium, while the surface area increased by almost 200 hectares, in comparison with the 1.908 hectares and the 343 wineries (growers or bottlers) of 2006.

(source: Franciacorta Docg consortium)

Product innovation is one of the most important keys that can be used to extend the sparkling wines seasonal consumption pattern. The Franciacorta Saten, for example, is a particular sparkling wine type born in 1995, obtained mainly from Chardonnay grapes, with bottle pressure of less than four and a half atmospheres, and sugar content of less than 15 grams/litre. This Brut may also be vintaged, and is ideal to drink through the meal. Rose sparkling wine may also help to modify consumption patterns. But habits are hard to change...

Asti is recovering

Asti sparkling wines are undoubtedly experiencing a period of recovery. Sales jumped in 2007 by 11% at 79m bottles, thanks to the progression outside Italy and particularly in some markets such as Russia. To place the discussion in the right perspective, I would highlight that Asti denomination is characterized by quite large producers, thanks to the significant size of production and that the consortium invested heavily last year to revive the product. Total sales nearly touched 600 thousand hl against 531k of 2006. Looking at this performance over the long term, it clearly represents a leap after years in which the highest annual growth was in the region of 4% and with a couple of years (2003-04) in which volumes sold were actually down Sales are mainly supported by foreign sales, which are now 80% of the total, a value among the highest for Italian wines. International sales were up 13% in 2007 after a stop in 2006 (+2%). It must be said that even in Italy 2007 was the best year since 2000: sales increased to 117k hl, +4.4%, although they remain below the level of 130k hl that Asti had reached in 2000. Moving to the detail of retail sales outside Italy, we can say that the process of geographic diversification continues: non core markets (ie from n.10) were up 40% in 2007, after a growth of 20-25% in both 2005 and 2006. The second very important highlight is the Russian market, which now accounts for 9% of total sales of Asti with 7m bottles (slightly more of 10% of exports). The graph shows the progression in the Russian market, which in 2000 absorbed only 500k bottles: the annual growth in 7 years is 52%, confirmed in 2007 with a +48%. This performance offset the losses in other markets such as Canada (-22%, after the exploit of 2006, back to 1m bottles), Japan (-19% to 1.6m bottles, now far from 2.3m bottles of 2004) and Portugal (-11%, the third consecutive decline, now 1.75m bottles vs. 2.2m in 2005). The key markets are still Germany, where sales have bounced by 5% (2006 -3.6%) to 15.6m bottles and the United States with 12.4m bottles (stable, very close to the historical maximum 13-13.5m bottles).

(from http://inumeridelvino.it/2008/05/asti-spumante-vendite-2007.html#more-1242)

Asti is one of the few Italian appellations that has very big brands (Gancia, Cinzano, ...), and only large companies can afford relevant investments in promotion. But the Asti renovated success depends non only on marketing, but also on the ability to properly manage the relations between industry and viticulture. And do not forget product innovation, that in many other Italian wine regions still remains a sort of taboo.

Renaissance in Asti

Sales of Asti Spumante rose by 11% in 2007 to reach 78.8m bottles. Nearly 80% of that volume is sold off-shore, where shipments were up 13%. “We could hardly hope for more,” commented Emilio Barbero, president of the Consorzio per la Tutela dell’Asti. The most impressive growth was registered in Russia, were sales were up 48% to 7m bottles, making that country the third most important destination for Asti Spumante. Germany with 15.6m bottles (+5.2%) remains Asti’s largest market, followed by the United States, where sales stagnated at 12.4m bottles. Shipments of Moscato d’Asti were also up dramatically. For the first time in history, sales cracked the 10m bar to reach 11.1m bottles.
(from http://wine-business-international.com/News_Renaissance_in_Asti.html#)

The Chianti Classico? Certified by SMS

A messaging service allows you to read the identity card of a wine and avoid unpleasant surprises. The message says everything: vintage, wine cellar, game, alcometric title, dry extract net acidity. An electronic identity card to avoid unpleasant surprises, and above all, once uncorked wine and poured in the cup, have the certainty of drinking an authentic Chianti Gallo Nero, produced and stored as God commanded. From now on, one of the most important wines of Tuscany and Italy whole, the Chianti precisely, will have a system of traceability via innovative mobile. Sending an SMS to 366.3333603 and in the message specifying the serial number and size of the bottle on the status of band classics bottled by 2004, you can have in just a few seconds another sms response with all the information on the bottle in question. A safe way to circumvent counterfeiting, which unfortunately afflict the industry and have the safety of drinking a wine quality. It is a system that we designed to offer a service to the consumer - says Marco Pallanti, president of the Consorzio Chianti classico. It is innovative because it is the first of its kind in Italy, and secure on the traceability of the product. Customers can get information on the entire production, about 40 million bottles a year. The system is multilingual. The sms responds recognizing the international prefix and information starting in Italian or German or English. This service is only the tip of the iceberg of "Search the bottle. "We have worked to achieve a search engine - say the designers of the project presented today in Florence - capable of detecting etihette generality of the Gallo Nero www.chianticlassico.com through the portal. Clicking on the traceability is thus possible to have the same information via computer offered by mobile phone with SMS. In short, more and more hi-tech at the service of taste. 270.000 hectolitres - The numbers of Chianti Classico are multinational: 10 thousand hectares of vineyards, 280 thousand hectolitres produced in 2007 with a growth trend continues. The 30% of the wine is sold in the United States, 27% in Italy, 10% in Germany, 9% in the United Kingdom. Followed by Switzerland (8%), Canada (5%), Japan (5%), Russia (2%).
(translated from http://www.corriere.it/cronache/08_febbraio_19/sms_tracciabilita_chianti_classico_bd3df06c-ded1-11dc-9d37-0003ba99c667.shtml)