Italy at the top in a growing Canadian wine market. With Umberto Cesari top brand in restaurants

Stable among the top five markets in value for Italian wine exports, Canada is often out of the spotlight. Canada is not only one of the few markets where Italian wine exports grew even in 2020 (158 million euros in the first 6 months, compared to 153 in 2019, Istat data), but it is also a market that, especially in some of its most important regions, is dominated by Italian wines. As described in the MiBD Analytics survey on the presence of the wine lists of Quebec, one of the most important regions of Canada. And where Italy dominates both at the brand and territory level.
Among the individual wineries most present in the restaurant wine list, 7 out of 10 are Italian, in a ranking that sees in the first place Umberto Cesari, Umberto Cesari, among the reference wineries of Emilia Romagna, ahead of Masi, among the leaders of Amarone della Valpolicella and beyond, and Robert Mondavi Winery. There are many great brands in advanced positions, from Marchesi Antinori to Tenuta San Guido, from Carpineto to Ruffino, and Gaja.
“It is something that makes me very happy, not only for Umberto Cesari, but for the whole Emilia Romagna, whose wines are barely considered”, an enthusiastic Gianmaria Cesari, at the helm of the historic winery in Castel San Pietro Terme, on the Bolognese Hills, told WineNews. And he adds: “it is a gratifying result because Canada, which is often out of the spotlight, is actually one of the most competitive and selective markets in the world of fine wines, over 15 dollars a bottle. And Quebec, in particular, which I have been frequenting for at least 20 years, is a market whose consumers know wine well, there are levels of knowledge that are sometimes surprising. It is a market that we have cultivated so much, working restaurant by restaurant, door to door, and it makes us happy, but let me repeat, it must make the whole region proud”.
But if these are the top brands, the Belpaese is also very well placed at the level of territories, so much so that it places 4 denominations among the top 8 also at the level of territorial presence. If at the top, in this sense, there is California, on the second step of the podium there is Igt Toscana, present in 64% of the wine lists, and then, in at least 4 out of 10 wine lists, there are great Italian wine denominations such as Barolo, Brunello di Montalcino and Chianti Classico.