Italian wine has walked a long way. Since the beginnings of Italian enology,
wines produced in the boot were appreciated for their quality and many authors
of the past have praised them in their writings. Wines which made dream the men
living in past times, exported and appreciated everywhere in what was considered
- at those times - the known world. Wine was also one the first things produced
in Italy to be exported outside the borders of the country, then - as everyone
knows - the beverage of Bacchus was followed by other products, art and culture.
Wine, after all, fully represents the culture and the expression of the ones
making it, therefore - since those times - together with wines was also exported
the Italian culture, or at least of that territory that will be called in later
times Italy. Then, the fairy tale underwent a time of deep decline, the
splendor of Italian enology passed the dark times of the Middle Age and - with
alternate fortunes - has come to our days, after having undergone a very long
period of productive logic in which quantity was more important than quality.
During this period, the name of Italy abroad was however kept high by other
productions, by the delicacies of the Mediterranean cooking, clothes, Italian
style and by all the other products generically classified as made in
Italy. Among them there was also wine, but its role was certainly marginal,
so far from what it was and from what it represented in past times. The decline
was not only because of the way wine was generally produced in Italy - lots of
quantity and disputable quality - and the few producers who made quality the
primary characteristic of their wines, had a pretty hard time in selling their
wines, in particular abroad, because of the not very noble fame of Italian
wines. And while in Italy they mainly thought about making oceans of ordinary
wine, the other countries - including the ones of the so called New World -
were taking giant steps forward in terms of quality, progressively getting more
and more marketing shares as well as building up a solid fame of quality
producers.
In the last 25 years the world of Italian wine - luckily - has lived a
revolution in every aspect, both because of the will of some producers who
believed in revaluating the enology of this country, as well as because of the
increasing interest for Italian wine. These two events, including the renewed
worldwide interest for the beverage of Bacchus, have started a change which can
be defined as epochal, literally changing the production criteria and - thanks
to the progressive introduction of modern technologies and wine making
techniques - Italian wine has resumed its way towards quality, suspended for
a very long time. The reprise towards quality has begun - at the beginning of
the 1980s - with white wines, also helped by the fashion of the moment, followed
by red wines and, in recent times, by the excellent production of classic method
and Charmat sparkling wines, particularly concentrated in northern Italy.
Even though slowly, Italian wine was attracting the attention of foreign markets
again, conquering, once again, the dignity and the role which in past times
distinguished Italy. however competition was - as it was easily predictable -
pretty tight: progresses obtained by the other countries of the world were
surprising and certainly not easy to surpass. Also because the enological
production of the competing countries was - and still is today - of excellent
quality, therefore consumers, in front of the possibility of choosing a series
of products, they prefer, of course, the ones having the higher quality and
possibly sold at the most convenient price. A non easy scenery, of course, in
which if they would have simply relied on the made in Italy branding
- still attracting in every country of the world - this was not enough to ensure
to Italian wine a renewed success. It was the time to show facts, not only
words.
And the facts have finally arrived. Since many years the quality of Italian
wines has indisputably reached levels such to be superior than the one of the
many wines coming from the other countries of the world. Whether it was because
of the made in Italy branding or not, the charm of culture and
Italian tradition, this is not important at all: the result is clear without
trying to find a reason or merits somewhere else. Also the figures about the
export of Italian wines abroad are very clear. The statistics about the export
of Italian wine in 2006 say there was an increase of 13% about quantities and
an increase of 9% about profits than 2005. If we consider the holiday period
which has just passed - a period in which the sale of sparkling wines increases
considerably - the results obtained by bubbles in foreign country are surprising.
The sale of Italian sparkling wines in 2006 have recorded an increase of about
17% in quantity and 13% in profits. A result which confirms, once again, the
progresses and the results obtained by Italian bubbles, both classic and Charmat
methods.
Italian bubbles are getting more and more successful in Japan, acquiring more
and more market shares in the country of the rising sun. In Germany Italian wine
has considerably increased export, and now it represents the larger share in
German market, followed by France and Spain. In the other side of the Atlantic
ocean are being recorded encouraging results as well. In the United States
of America the sales of Italian wine has considerably increased, including the
interest of knowing the history, tradition and the wine areas of Italy. In fact,
whereas the situation of the export of Italian wine in the country of the
European Union can be considered pretty stable, export has considerably
increased in all those countries outside the Union. The first ranking of export
is occupied by red wines and, progressively increasing, sparkling wines, an
indisputable sign the bubble produced in Italy have reached high quality levels.
This is what has been reported by the ICE - Istituto Nazionale per il
Commercio Estero, National Institute for Foreign Commerce - about the export of
Italian wine abroad. In this scenery, it is also found out the main share of
wine export goes to the regions of northern Italy - representing more than 70%
- whereas the export of southern regions is a little more than 5%. A surprising
result, by considering the good production of southern regions, in particular of
red wines. The good trend of the export of Italian wine in the world is
certainly something which confirms the remarkable progresses Italian enology did
for quality. The confirmation the hard and tenacious work done by producers for
the success of Italian wine was effective and that quality was the main thing
asked by wine lovers. The wish is that the result will be confirmed in 2007 as
well and that quality of Italian wine will be increased, not only for the joy of
the countries of the world in which it is being exported, but also for the joy
of wine lovers in Italy. Alla salute!
|