Signing up for this year’s Vinitaly came with an elevated feeling that I was now part of the wine world.
According to Vinitaly, at the time of booking my ticket, I was still a wine lover because my wine blog was less than 2 years old. Next year I could apply as media, hopefully. As a wine lover, I was only allowed to attend the first day or the last. To avoid the crowd, I chose the last day.
Booth Forest
Held in Verona, a big city in northeastern Italy, Vinitaly took place inside a dozen of giant expo domes, with over 4000 wineries from all over Italy exhibiting.
Not until I actually got there did I know that Vinitaly’s photos and reels on Instagram had given me a wrong perception about the size of the event. Aside from it was huge and boundless, each booth was tall as an Alpine pine. As I walked around the exhibition halls, I was often so focused on looking up at those “pines”, that I didn’t notice the winery representatives smiling at me right at my eye level.
Then, my tastebuds were first greeted by Firriato’s 100% Carricante traditional method sparkling wine.
Metodo Classico
Firriato Winery is located in the volcanic area of Etna, in the north-eastern part of Sicily. The high altitude of this area produces grapes with a good ratio of sweetness to acidity, ideal for making well-structured wines. The volcanic geology also gives the Etna wines a unique mineral, ashy flavour. Etna wines, both red and white, have long been synonymous with fine wine in the global market.
The first time I tried a Firriato, it was also a traditional method sparkler. A few months ago at home, I tasted Firriato’s 100% Nerello Mascalese Blanc de Noirs traditional method sparkler against a Champagne. Honestly, Firriato was way better. Now with 2 very positive experiences with Etna traditional method sparklers, I’d love to try more and more, and I also have more confidence in Etna sparklers.
2 years ago, when I just started learning wine, I was a fan of Barolo. It was only after more tastings along the way that I discovered the wine flavours that I really liked. Now, hard tannins are no longer what I’m after in a wine. So when I got to the booth of Deltetto, a Piemontese winery, instead of their Barolo, I tasted a traditional method Nebbiolo sparkler.
With only a short skin maceration for its pink salmon colour, the tannins in this sparkler were so low it was unnoticeable, and all that was left was the red berry flavour and the penetrating acidity, both typical of Nebbiolo, which happened to be the 2 characteristics I loved the most about Nebbiolo. It turned out a sparkler could fulfil all my desire for a Nebbiolo.
While the best French sparkling wines are distinctively named Champagne, the best Italian sparkling wines are simply called metodo classico, not even a denomination, but rather a category, with the exception of Franciacorta, a quality sparkling wine from Lombardy, made with the traditional method (metodo classico), but on the label you do not see metodo classico, but Franciacorta. The whole Franciacorta wine region is treating Franciacorta as a brand, hoping it will continue to grow in popularity in the long term, just as champagne has.
Speaking of the naming challenge, the representative of one winery (I don’t remember which one) said that someone should think of a new name to replace this mouthful, wordy metodo classico. But it’s not going to be easy.
We write and speak words. While our imagination could take us anywhere in this universe, our expression is very limited by words. Even more challenging when words are used to communicate with places where the language and culture are different, e.g. how “metodo classico” should be expressed in Chinese characters? Consumption of sparkling wine is growing. And no doubt Prosecco is do super well. But with the aim of promoting the status of its “more serious” metodo classico sparklers to the Champagne level, this naming/branding issue must be addressed and tackled sooner than later, especially for the Asian markets.
Farewell to Grand Wines
Not just mine, looks like the whole world’s appetite for Italian grand wines has waned.
Last Friday I read about Italy’s total wine export value falling slightly by 0.8% in 2023 compared to 2022.(source) Looking into each region, I found it very interesting: traditionally well-known regions such as Piemonte, Tuscany and Veneto were all down, but other emerging regions grew, the biggest growth being in Friuli. Maybe it has something to do with the orange wine craze.
Take the Veneto region, where Vinitaly takes place, for example. This region is best known for its Prosecco and Amarone. As Prosecco’s export grows steadily, the total export decline was very likely contributed by Amarone.
When speaking to Ca’ Rugate, a Veneto winery, the representative told me about the trend shift they’d been observing from Amarone to Valpolicella and Ripasso, which I also personally prefer to Amarone.
Only time will tell if this shift is short-lived or long-term. We just need to keep an close eye on it.
Wine No More?
I used to see the decline in global wine consumption as a crisis, but Vinitaly has changed my mind completely. Even on the last day of the fair, it was still busy and full of life. Most attendees were young people, meaning wine is still very popular among them, despite many sources claim the opposite. Also, while wine sales are declining, sparkling wines are not. Instead of seeing “wine” as a generic whole, I think it’d be more realistic if we started treating each wine category independently, and all the data on each category should also be viewed and analysed separately.
Wine still plays an important part in our life. But more needs to be done to keep it important continuously.
As to me personally? I always have an appetite and confidence in wine, now even more so in sparkling wine.
Till Next Year
In 2025, I shall be at Vinitaly all 4 days instead of 1, which was proved not enough. And I’m already starting looking forward to it!
