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los otros
FROM THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Las catas dirigidas son
una buena instancia
para que los consorcios
muestren sus vinos más
representativos.
¿Por qué el símbolo
de una mariposa?
“Toscana brota del mapa para convertirse en mariposa”,
explica Gianni Salvadori, Ministro de Agricultura de la Región
de Toscana. “Es un mensajero para anunciar al mundo la calidad
de sus vinos y difundir las tradiciones de una región gloriosa, con una
cultura de elaboración forjada a través de los siglos y que ha creado
algunos de los mejores mostos del planeta. La mariposa agita sus alas
para llevar ese mensaje, que conduce a alturas nuevas y exaltadas”.
Why a butterfly as the symbol?
“Tuscany springs from the map to become a Butterfly,” explains Gianni
Salvadori, Minister of Agriculture of Tuscany. A messenger to the world,
heralding the quality of Tuscan wines. Heralding the traditions of a
glorious region, and of a culture of winemaking built up through the
centuries. A culture that, right here in Tuscany, has created some of
the very best wines in the World. Butterflies fluttering their wings to
take the message of Tuscan wines to the world, and to new and exalted
heights.”
wine writer suizo Pierre Thomas. Esto es relevante si se considera que
la ley italiana exige que los vinos se embotellen varios meses –incluso
años– antes de ser puestos en el mercado, por lo tanto estas muestras
de barrica no reflejan lo que luego estará en el mercado.
De todos modos, Buy Wine representa para todas las empresas una
valiosa oportunidad para ampliar su cartera de clientes y mercados de
destino. Si bien todas las bodegas que participaron están presentes en el
mercado europeo, sólo el 64% está bien posicionado en EEUU y el 24%
en Asia. Además, gran parte de ellas tiene capacidad para aumentar en
forma importante su producción (el 58% podría hacerlo en un 50%).
Como dato: el año pasado, en Buy Wine se realizaron 5.760 reuniones
de negocios, las que representaron ventas estimadas en € 860.000.
Italian law provides that wines must be bottled several
months –even years– before being put on the market.
Accordingly, those barrel samples do not reflect what
bottles will contain.
In any case, Buy Wine is a valuable opportunity for
companies to broaden their customer portfolio and
markets of destination. Although all the wineries that
participated in the event do business in Europe, only
64% of them is well positioned in the U.S. and 24% in
Asia. In addition, many of them have the potential to
increase their production significantly (58% could step
up production by 50%). Interestingly, 5,760 business
meetings representing estimated sales for € 860,000
were held in the framework of Buy Wine 2013.
Thanks to this initiative and the individual efforts of
each winery, Toscana currently accounts for 15% of
Italian exports, and is ranked third after Veneto and
Piedmont.
VISITING CONSORTIUMS
Following the three days at Buy Wine, we went on a trip
throughout Tuscany to visit four consortiums –Chianti
Classico, Vino Nobile de Montepulciano, Brunello de
Montalcino, and Vernaccia di San Gimignano–, during
which we tasted dozens of wines and even attended the
launching of the new vintages.
Consorzio di San Gimignano makes one of the
oldest white wines in Italy, made from the Vernaccia di
San Gimignano variety. Their meticulous work earned
them the Vernaccia di San Gimignano Controlled and
Guaranteed Appellations of Origin (DOC 1963 and DOCG
1993). During a tasting workshop led by Francesco
Falcone, the Grüner Veltliner, the signature variety
from Austria, was compared to the Vernaccia di San
Gimignano. According to Falcone, Vernaccia is “a wine of
immense but untapped potential, like many others from
central Italy.” For the Swiss wine writer Pierre Thomas,
Vernaccia di San Gimignano is a fruity, subtle white with
milder exotic aromas, not too long lasting but overall a
good wine. “It’s important to keep the pure character of
this variety, which is the originality of an area, even if it’s
60 ▼ Vitis Magazine l marzo/abril 2014