EVERY CLOUD HAS A SILVER LINING IN RUSSIA: BEHIND THE IMPORTERS LICENSE RENEWAL STALEMATE, THE WILL TO IMPROVE QUALITY OF WINE FOR CONSUMERS. WINENEWS REPORTS COMMENTS AT VINITALY MOSCOW

A stalemate for importers license renewal in Russia? It’s just a temporary glitch and will actually improve things in the future, even for Italian wines. That’s the vision that emerges from participants at the October 12-13th Vinitaly Russia Tour (www.vinitaltour.com).
Valery Filatov, CEO of United Distributors told WineNews: “in past years there were 200 importers and 50% of them controlled 90% of the market. The others did not have adequate storage facilities and authorities require everyone to comply with the rules. For instance, wine cannot be kept in warehouses at 30 degree F° temperatures in the summer. Importers who comply with the rules will protect the consumers as well as the producers and the wine”. A positive outlook with a sacrifice: better prepared operators on the market will benefit everybody, comment the sales managers Marco Gobbi of the Italian Wines Group and Giuseppina Viglierchio of SAIAGRICOLA (agriculture investment group).
And there are two “guarantees”: one is the appeal of Made in Italy wine in Russia, which Filatov says has taken over the top position from France, and the other is that Russian authorities, in order to fight alcohol problems mainly due to the consumption of hard liquor (the Russians, according to the World Health Organization, consume twice the amount of ethanol considered dangerous to one’s health) would like Russians to drink a bottle less of vodka and a bottle more of wine.