AUCTIONS? FRANCE DOMINATES AND ITALY HAS SPACE TO GROW, PIERO ANTINORI SAYS AND URGES ITALIAN WINE MAKERS TO BE ALERT TO THE PHENOMENON AND RESPOND TO COLLECTORS’ NEEDS WITH LONG-AGEING WINES

The auction world is a confirmed and growing phenomenon that Italian winemakers cannot ignore: international collectors have known for some time now that France is not alone and Italy has room to grow, as long as our wine producers know how to interpret the sector and create wines that can be aged for a very long time. Piero Antinori, head of the historic denomination Marchesi Antinori (among the stars in Florence at the Pandolfini “Spring Auction”) that has so much success at international auctions with its crus, Solaia and Tignanello.

“On many markets,” explained Antinori, “especially emerging ones like China and Hong Kong, which have become the “new America” for auctions, the number of collectors of fine wines that can be aged in cellars for decades is growing. This is a positive fact because these people take wine seriously and want to know what is behind a wine: its history and its origin”.

According to Antinori, today accompanied by Renzo Cotarella, his winemaker and administrator of the Marchesi Antinori company, “this phenomenon is also developing culturally and needs to be closely watched by Italian wine producers. Up until today, French wines have definitely dominated the auction scene, but now there is an opening towards other typologies and Italy runs a close second to France”.

The gap with France, the Marquis further explained, “is bound to close up in time, due to price or culture. The great wine collectors realize that France is not alone and they are opening towards Italian wines. At the moment our percentage in world wide auctions is very small, but we have great potential and lots of room to grow and expand”. Indeed, “we must work hard and it is essential to make wine that can age well because auction buyers want wines they can open 20 or 30 years down the road”.