The Tuscan wine in the spotlight: from “Buy Wine” to the week of “Anteprime”

Wines from Tuscany are among the Italian wines most present in the wine lists of the whole world. Its most renowned appellations, from Brunello di Montalcino to Chianti Classico, from Nobile di Montepulciano to Chianti, from Bolgheri to Vernaccia di San Gimignano, from Morellino di Scansano to Maremma, are a must and can be the driving force of many other enological gems of the Grand Duchy. Renewing a long history, that of Tuscan wine, from the Etruscans to the Middle Ages, from the Renaissance to today, which has indelibly designed some of the most beautiful rural landscapes of Italy and the world, and created image and wealth in the territories. In today’s numbers, for example, this translates into an export worth 15.6% of the Italian total (972 million euros in 2020 of the pandemic, down -3.2% on 2019), generated by nearly 22,000 wineries and winemakers and 10. 393 wineries (the highest figure in Italy in 2019, source Ismea), which arise from 61,000 hectares planted with vines (on the more than 660,000 of all Italy), for a Region that counters 11 Docg, 41 Doc and 6 Igt (58 Dop and Igp wines in total, behind only Piedmont that puts together 59, ed.). The wine richness of a Region that has always been open to the world, and that in an Italy that is struggling to emerge from the pandemic, in a world still partly limited by Covid 19, returns to do so in a new way, in line with the times. Because today, with the first round of the digital edition of “Buy Wine”, officially starts the week of the great “Anteprime” of Tuscany, revisited in the modalities and in the period (usually in February), obviously because of Covid.
“The Week of the “Anteprime 2021” - comments Stefania Saccardi, Councillor for Agriculture and Vice-President of the Region of Tuscany, to WineNews - testifies that wine in Tuscany is ready to start again, determined to confirm its role as the driving force of the regional economy and to maintain its leadership on foreign and domestic markets. The long wave of the Covid emergency has not dampened the energy of the wineries that, also this year, are ready to show the best of the new vintages”.
So, today starts the first tranche of “Buy Wine” http://www.buy-wine.it/, the all-digital business2business event signed by Regione Toscana and PromoFirenze, which will bring 50 companies at a time to meet 120 foreign buyers including importers, distributors, agents, large-scale retail trade and horeca, operating in the target markets. The event starts in Europe (May 10-14, with a focus on the European Union, Switzerland and the UK), then moves on to Asia & Oceania (May 24-28, with Japan, South Korea, China, Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia) and America (June 7-11, with the United States, Canada, Mexico, Colombia and Peru). Then, on May 14th, at the Fortezza da Basso in Florence, the real “Anteprime” will start, with “PrimAnteprima 2021”, which will gather 12 Consortia among the most promising ones in Tuscany: Candia dei Colli Apuani, Carmignano, Chianti Rufina, Colline Lucchesi, Cortona, Maremma Toscana, Montecucco, Orcia, Pitigliano e Sovana, Terre di Pisa, Valdarno, Val di Cornia Suvereto. An event that will also serve to take stock of the present and the future of the wine sector of Tuscany, in the conference (also transmitted in streaming) which will be attended, among others, the same Stefania Saccardi, along with Fabio del Bravo (Ismea), Francesco Mazzei, president Avito, the association that brings together the consortia of wine in Tuscany, and Gabriele Gorelli, the first Master of Wine of Italy. Then, on May 15th, the focus will be on the territories: once again in Florence, it will be the turn of Chianti Lovers (as it has been for years in combination with Morellino di Scansano https://www.consorziomorellino. it/), while on 16th and 17th May it will be the turn of Benvenuto Brunello, in Montalcino, on 18th May in Montepulciano, pearl of the Tuscan Renaissance, with Vino Nobile, on 19th May Anteprima Vernaccia, in San Gimignano, under the towers of the “Manhattan of the Middle Ages”, to then return to Florence (but also in connection with London, New York and Chicago), on 20th and 21st May at the Chianti Classico Collection, which becomes “Connection” (and which, in June, will touch Munich and Tokyo). A week of “Anteprime” very different from the past (there will be no presence of the foreign press, the events will be exclusively for the press, by invitation, and without any time for the public, only with sommelier service, and there will be no participation in the presence of the companies), but that tells, in its own way, of the desire and the need of the world of wine not to stop, waiting to be able to start again at full speed.