THE CRISIS IS CHANGING CONSUMPTION HABITS: AMERICANS HAVE NOT RENOUNCED WINE BUT NOW PREFER THOSE AT MORE ACCESSIBLE PRICES. THE TREND IS SIMILAR IN ITALY AND AT THE ‘WINE SHOW’ IN TURIN (24-26 OCTOBER) A SPECIAL EMPHASIS WILL BE ON ‘EVERYDAY’ WINES

The economic crisis is changing consumption habits and even though Americans have not renounced drinking wine, they are now choosing less expensive bottles. This trend has also been confirmed in Italy, where an increasing amount of wine acquisitions is based on quality/price relations. This data was recently released by the Italian Wine & Food Institute and may be the reason behind the fact that one of the protagonists of the ‘Wine Show’, to be held in Turin from October 24th to 16th, will be the so-called “everyday” wines, or rather, less costly wines that make daily consumption more accessible.

It is now up to producers to aim towards getting wine back on Italian dinner tables in order to re-conquer the internal market. Italian winemakers can, in fact, boast an enormous variety of autochthonous labels (which allow local markets to satisfy their own consumption, thus shortening the production process and cutting final costs) that have an excellent quality/price relation and are ideal for consumption at meal time. And these are the wines that will be the protagonists at the ‘Wine Show’ in Turin, which has made a goal of helping rediscover hundreds of autochthonous wines from all of Italy’s regions.

The change in consumption habits in the U.S., however, now favor wine imports from countries that produce less costly wines like in Australia, Chile, Argentina, and New Zealand. According to data collected by the Italian Wine & Food Institute, Italy – with a reduction of 10.8% in quantity and 21.1% in value – has lost its first place position for export quantity to the U.S. (a reduction of 8 points), though it has maintained its leading position for value. Australia, which has reached 58.6% in quantity (though decreased by 3.2% in value), now leads the classification as principle exporter to the U.S.

The trend for the first quarter of 2009 has confirmed that, overall, wine consumption continues to increase in quantity but decrease in value (+19.3% quantity, -14.4% value in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008).