“France is ahead, but things are changing. Italy is growing thanks to its autochthonous vines”

Italian wine is destined to grow even more, in terms of price, and to gradually fill the gap with its competitors, such as France, thanks, above all, to its autochthonous vines, increasingly good, in quality, and increasingly loved and sought after by enthusiasts from all over the world. Jancis Robinson, one of the world's most authoritative wine critics and Master of Wine, writer of successful books on wine and oenologist for the “Financial Times”, interviewed by WineNews, is convinced of this. “The best Italian wine is still far from the best French wine in terms of price. However, I think things will change as more and more people discover Italian wine. We should not underestimate the power of the negociants in Bordeaux, they were the ones who made the global wine market. It is also interesting to see such wines as Masseto or Solaia are sold by the Bordeaux people at an important price”. The great producers of Piedmont, for example, do not use this channel, but it might be a good idea, in general, to work on raising the price”. The most important arrow on the bow of Italian wine, Robinson confirms, is that of its many native vines, despite the fact that many of the most celebrated wines from Italy are still blended Bordeaux.
“I think this situation is changing. The autochthonous varieties are coming into the limelight, with two other authors, Julia Harding and Josè Vouillamoz, we wrote a book in 2012, “Wine Grape”. In this book, we have outlined every single grape variety from which wine was obtained on the market. We found 1,368 and I think that if we had to rewrite the book today we would find even more, and many of these would be Italian. I admire the work that Italian producers are doing to recover and show the world the autochthonous vines. Italy is the country with the most autochthonous vines and I am sure that this situation will always improve, and to be honest I can tell you that consumers are looking for unknown vines, they are bored of cabernet and chardonnay”. A thought that is reflected in what, according to Jancis Robinson, is the most interesting Italian wines of the moment.
“From my point of view, with a better knowledge of the English and American markets, Sicily is one of the most fashionable territories at the moment, especially the eastern part of Etna and everything around this volcano. However, Sardinia and the Marches, for example, also have excellent wines, as well as Campania. One of the things I mention on my website is the Cirò della Calabria, a wine with a great history, but which has great potential for the future”.
A future that, for the wine market, will be focused on China and Asia. “I go to China every year - explains the Master of Wine - and I have seen great changes. The most useful one for wine is that there are so many young people who have regularly introduced wine into their diet. They grew up with an obsession with Bordeaux, and now they are looking for interesting wines that can come from all over the world, and that also have a good price, because the Chinese economy is slowing down a bit. I hope that Italian exporters in China will not give up, because I think that looking at the number of potential consumers it is really worth insisting”. But there is not only China.
“I’ve just published the eighth edition of “The World Atlas of Wine”, a real success, with more than 4.7 million copies sold and translated into 14 languages. The country that made the biggest order for this edition was Korea. A very interesting market. And if China has ordered a Chinese translation for the second time, there are also many buyers who deal with fine wines in Thailand, but also Indonesia, as well as Japan, which remains a structured market for fine wines”.