Calendar
Franco Biondi Santi: "Rosso di Montalcino must change its identity, Brunello instead must remain 100% Sangiovese"
“Rosso di Montalcino must change its identity, with a modification of the disciplinary that would allow it to mix Sangiovese with the few other varietals that have roots in the territory. Instead, Brunello must remain 100% Sangiovese”. This is the idea that Franco Biondi Santi (who has run for the past forty years the historic winery that actually invented Brunello di Montalcino in the 1800’s).It is an idea (by a man whose Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Biondi Santi 1955 is the only Italian wine to make it onto the 12 wines of the century list by the cult American magazine Wine Spectator) that makes up one of the proposals in the debate over whether to modify the Brunello di Montalcino disciplinary that currently requires the use of solely Sangiovese grapes.
Read More...
[ add comment ] ( 58 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink | related link
In the sixties, the vineyards of Sangiovese that were used to produce Brunello di Montalcino barely reached 60 hectares, there were about 20 producers, the bottles that were produced were no more than 150,000; during the same period, hectares planted with Nebbiolo in the Barolo area were 500, 115 producers/bottlers, and 3,000,000 bottles of Barolo produced per year.
While, however, Barolo did not have a leader, Brunello di Montalcino already had one with its founding father, Biondi Santi, the artisan who, over time, had kept the banner high for the quality and the price of an aristocratic, rare, precious Brunello that was accessible to the very few who could afford it.
Read More...
[ add comment ] ( 52 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink | related link
- 299 millions of bottles of Italian sparkling exported
- 153 millions of bottles of Italian sparkling drunk in Italy
- 165 millions of bottles drunk in Italy including imported sparkling
- 146 millions of bottles sent to the 25 EU countries and to other 32 countries
- 72% of domestic consumption during the 25 day of Christmas and New Year (used to be 80% on 1998)
- 2,3 billions of Euro is the total turnover of sparkling sold in Italy
- 3,4 millions are the usual drinkers of sparkling and Champagne
- 2,8 bottles are drunk in Italy per capite on 2007
So far in 2008, Italian sperkling wine recorded an increase of export turnover of 60%, while the increase of export volume is only 10%.
Source: Osservatorio Nazionale Economico Spumanti (Ones)
[ add comment ] ( 19 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink
The "Carabinieri" have seized 30,400 litres of sophisticated wine while being transported over a tanker.
The liquid would have been produced in a wine cellar located in Cutrofiano (Lecce) which supposed to be sealed due a judiciary seizure, therefore it was believed to be disused from several years. Inside the wine cellar there were other tanker similar to these loaded on the truck.
The truck was heading to the northern province of Alessandria.
The trasportation documents found on board stated "Red Wine Table - title alcohol effective and total 12 degree".
[ add comment ] ( 50 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink | related link
In a bid to become a dominant player in the regional fine wine market, Macau has eliminated its 15% tax on wine.
The move follows a similar decision by neighbouring Hong Kong which scrapped taxes on wine and beer in its spring 2008 budget.
A 10% tax on beer has also been lifted, though a duty of 10% remains on drinks containing more than 30% alcohol.
[ add comment ] ( 37 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink | related link
The new European Common Market Organization (CMO) for wine went into effect on August 1 (though countries will have time to get all of its regulations into effect by August 2009) and one of its most significant changes for Italy will be the modifications made to the wine denomination system.
From now on, the only valid denominations for the European Union will be DOP and IGP, which means DOCG, DOC, and IGT will no longer exist.
Brussels will now also determine all of the wines that can enter into this classification instead of allowing countries to determine their denomination wines as had previously been the practice.
This new system will have a particularly heavy impact on Italy that currently has 38 DOCG certified wines, 316 DOC, and 118 IGT. And this issue does not signify just a name change, but could reignite a debate over production disciplinaries, which have already undergone much discussion after the recent Brunello scandal.
[ add comment ] ( 12 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink
A new colossal among Italian winemaking cooperatives has been created: the fusion between the Riunite and CIV wineries (now called Cantine Riunite e Civ) has been completed.
It includes over 2,800 producing members, and is the new point of reference for the Italian conglomerate Gruppo Italiano Vini (GIV), which, with almost 300 million euros in earnings, is the top winemaking group in Italy, and one of the most important worldwide.
The new group should have earnings that reach around 450 million euros, 60% of which are earned abroad.
[ add comment ] ( 31 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink
Gianni Masciarelli, one of the most important winemakers in Italy, died suddenly during a visit to Monaco di Baviera on July 31st.
Born 53 years ago in San Martino della Marrucina, a small town in the province of Chieti, he lived for two loves: that for wine, and, above all, for his companion Marina Cvetic, a chemical engineer from Belgrade. He also leaves behind three children, one of which is barely a year old.
[ add comment ] ( 8 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink
