Brunello and Barolo the most loved, Tuscany and Sicily top regions in the USA: Wine Spectator dixit

The wine most loved by wine lovers in the USA is Brunello di Montalcino (33%), followed by Barolo (26%), which comes off Chianti (11%), Amarone (9.5%), Prosecco (3%), Pinot Grigio (2%) and Soave (1%): is a confirmation, more than a surprise, of what emerges from the survey of Wine Spectator among its readers, presented at Opera Wine 2019, the traditional “preview” of Vinitaly, on stage today at the Gran Guardia in Verona, by the executive editor of the U.S. magazine, Thomas Matthews, and by the two senior editors, Bruce Sanderson and Alison Napjus.
After all, the fact that Italian wine is the real star on the US market was also mentioned by the president of VeronaFiere, Maurizio Danese, stressing that “Vinitaly remains the leading event for wine, also in terms of the number of foreign exhibitors, with the USA as the most important market, with an export value of 1.7 billion dollars, and despite the exponential growth of recent years, the USA is still a great change for Italian wine. In our industrial plan, not by chance, there is the opening of two outposts for the promotion of wine, one in China, in 2020, and one in the U.S., in 2022. Opera Wine, in this sense, allows us to leave the fair and embrace the whole city, for the eighth year”.
And in the USA, as Stevie Kim, head of Vinitaly International, recalls, “there are 63 ambassadors trained by the Vinitaly International Academy, out of the 204 present all over the world, from 44 in China to 19 in Canada”. Opera Wine, as mentioned, is also the door that opens on Vinitaly, which with this edition is experiencing a real turning point, reiterated by the general director of Veronafiere, Giovanni Mantovani: “two are the pillars on which the change rests, summarized by two mottos: “Vinitaly Culture of Wine”, because the main mission of Vinitaly is to bring the culture of Italian wine in the world; and “Vinitaly 4.0”, with the digitization that has and will play an increasingly important role.
We will launch a Business Portal, at the service of exhibitors, where we will continuously monitor opportunities, stages of Vinitaly in the world, but also orders and payments, and there will be strong feedback on operators invited to the fair. With all the information available to operators. And in the portal, there will be information on all exhibitors, even indirect (you will no longer see only the Consortium, for example, but all the companies present at the fair in the Consortium itself). And then - concludes Mantovani - there is the Vinitaly App, which works with a geolocation service, and VeronaFiere is the first European exhibition center to do so”. Returning to research, among the preferred varieties, Sangiovese (44%) prevails, while among the white grapes to get the better of is, again, the Pinot Grigio (30%), while when talking about value for money, namely bottles under 25 dollars, the wine lover the USA focuses on Tuscany (48%) and Sicily (30%), but it is interesting that among women is particularly popular Friuli Venezia Giulia (16%), while the under 30 prefer Puglia (21%). Overall, looking at the dynamics of consumption, 12% of respondents say they choose an Italian label on more than 50% of occasions, while 58% decide for a wine made in Italy between 10% and 50% of occasions, and the remaining 30% less than 10%. In terms of average spending, 13% of the wine lover interviewed by Wine Spectator spends more than $50 per bottle, 39% between $26 and $50 per bottle, 40% between $16 and $25 per bottle and 8% less than $15 per bottle: 52%, therefore, spends more than $26, a percentage that falls to 48% among women and 42% among the under 30. The fundamental factor for the success of Italian wine in the U.S. is confirmed by the cuisine, indicated as the absolute favorite by 49% of interviewees (with another 6% who indicated pizza and pasta, ed.), so that the labels of the Belpaese are absolutely the favorite (43%) to combine with food at the table.
This is the state of the art, definitely healthy in terms of image, of Italian wine in the USA, which today brings the best of Belpaese production in the glass, from Antinori to Tenuta San Guido, from Ferrari to Caprai, from Allegrini to Ornellaia, from Masciarelli to Feudi di San Gregorio, from Mastroberardino to Quintodecimo, from Famiglia Cotarella to Bellavista, from Cà del Bosco to Tenuta di Trinoro, from Nino Negri to Umani Ronchi, from Gaja to Marchesi di Barolo, from Gianfranco Fino to Leone de Castris, from Tormaresca to Argiolas, from Santadi to Donnafugata, from Pietradolce to Planeta, from Tasca d’Almerita to Gini, from Canalicchio di Sopra to Carpineto, from Castello di Albola to Fontodi, from Frescobaldi to Fuligni, from Rocca delle Macie to Lungarotti, from Masi to Nino Franco, from Zenato to Cantine Lunae, from Di Majo Norante to Fèlsina, from Mascarello to Pieropan, from Paternoster to Bruno Giacosa, from Mazzei to Terlano, from San Leonardo to Aldo Conterno, just to mention some of the brands selected by Bruce Sanderson e d Alison Napjus, who are keen to stress that these are “absolutely free and independent choices. What we are interested in bringing to Opera Wine is the excellence of Italy’s wine, telling the story of the change and vivacity of such a rich country, without ever forgetting those who have made it, in terms of wine, great. It is no coincidence, therefore, that there are 15 new entries, including the six companies of Brunello di Montalcino, a territory that has undergone a complete turnover due to this wealth of quality, but also 7 old acquaintances”.