ANGELO GAJA’S TEN WISHES FOR 2008. ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS ITALIAN WINEMAKERS IN THE WORLD WRITES TO WINENEWS WHAT HIS HOPES ARE FOR THE NEW YEAR

“2008. Ten wishes for Italian wine”: Angelo Gaja, one of the most famous Italian winemakers in the world, recently wrote to WineNews a tongue-in-cheek wish list for the world of Italian wine in 2008.

1. That the Minister of Agriculture Paolo De Castro creates a miracle by giving us the National Viticulture Registry by the end of 2008.

2. That there is a return of the abundant harvest in 2008, otherwise Italian producers will have good reason to be sad.
3. That our prevention systems are alerted. The usual swindlers are ready to go into action as soon as the internal demand begins to insist on more contained prices, which the scarcity of the supply really cannot allow for.

4. That it is not an unpleasant surprise if the wine sold in Italian supermarkets for less than 1.20 euro per bottle is from Eastern countries.

5. That the U.S. market continues to be successful, otherwise the critics in our country will have reason to reprimand Italian producers who have neglected the internal market due to over-cultivating the U.S. market.

6. That the category associations for the wine sector will manage, for once, to unite and create a project by December 31, 2008 that can be treated by regional agricultural councillors, which can then get an agreed upon program going with Brussels for the extirpation of 68,000 hectares of Italian vineyards to be completed by 2010, thus saving ourselves, for once, from the Italian ineptitude and ruse of delaying things.

7. That everyone becomes a little less of a know-it-all and a little more critical in regards to the various entities and associations that, with the excuse of working for the general good of the territory, continue instead to suck up subsidies destined for their own particular interests.

8. That dignity is given back to wine. Too many producers have allowed themselves to be attracted to making a spectacle out of their wines, anywhere and anytime. Who profits from a spectacle? Definitely not the wine, whose per capita consumption continues to decline.

9. With the knowledge that the wine sector is the most fortunate in agriculture, it must demonstrate the capacity to assume a rule that makes it an example for others. That the presidents of non profit associations that run activities in the name of wine and its producers, and who have received public subsidies with a certain regularity, must non be allowed to keep their presidency for more than one term, that they cannot be re-elected. And that the directors of these same institutions cannot hold their role for more than two five-year terms. The wine world needs new faces; the non re-election rule would help remove the old and give the young the chance to participate.

10. With the multitude of surveys that are done in Italy, one more still needs to be done. To identify those who, among the 40-year-olds that are producing wine, have at least a hint of the right never enough regrets mentality like, Giacomo Bologna, Paolo Desana, Renato Ratti, and Gino Veronelli. This is in order to help them, all of us together, to grow more rapidly in their interests and our own.

Angelo Gaja