Gallo Nero is singing at the top of its lungs on world markets, and Chianti Classico looks to UNESCO

The Black Rooster is singing at the top of its lungs on world markets, while the Chianti Classico area is looking for recognition as a UNESCO site, which would be the tenth for Tuscany. During the “Chianti Classico Collection” in Florence, at Stazione Leopolda, Giovanni Manetti, president of the Chianti Classico Consortium, and Eugenio Giani, president of the Regional Council of Tuscany, and candidate (Democratic Party) for president of the Tuscany Region, talked about Tuscany’s wines. “We have had an excellent 2019 vintage, classic, which produced wines of great freshness and harmony; production was good quantity-wise, around 300.000 hectoliters, which give us reason to be quite optimistic. There is good news also from the market, as bottled sales are still growing”, said Manetti, “and moreover, between November 2019 and January 2020, we registered a +10% growth trend that is very promising. Furthermore, our greater added value products, Gran Selezione and Riserva, are worth 42% in volume and 55% in turnover. This is an important sign, because it means producers and farmers will be paid more. The most important thing, though, is that there is strong unity of purpose between producers, like never before. I would like to cite case of Gran Selezione, as an example. Five years ago, more or less only 30 wineries produced it. Today there are 144. And, the Gran Selezione turnover has grown +15% compared to 2018”. The total economic value of the Chianti Classico area is estimated at 800 million euros, of which 400.000 from bottled wines. 78% of sales are exported, and the USA is still the number one market, at 34% of the total sales of Chianti Classico, ahead of Italy, number two market at 22%, then Canada at 10%, followed by the United Kingdom (7%) and Germany (6%), ahead of Scandinavia, Switzerland and Japan. These are the main markets of a wine that now reaches 130 countries around the world. These are excellent results, which “gratify the 515 members of the Consortium”, the oldest association of wine producers in Italy. The Chianti Classico territory, situated between Renaissance Florence and medieval Siena, rich in history, but also excellent in the glass, as demonstrated by the many critics awards received in 2019 (third place, for the second consecutive year, in Wine Spectator’s “Top 100” and the record number of 24 wines awarded the “Three Glasses” in the Gambero Rosso wine guide, to cite just two examples). And in the future there is also a very good chance that the territory will receive recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This, in fact, is the goal that the association of the Chianti Rural District has been stating for some years, and the President of the Regional Council of Tuscany, and candidate for President of the Region, Eugenio Giani re-launched today. “Here at the Chianti Classico Collection the Black Rooster producers have clearly demonstrated their value, and it is important to know that the economy of Tuscany is driven by wine, in its many territories, and by such considerable numbers. The marriage between the beauty of our territories and wine production is also undeniably important. This is why, we and the Region will do everything possible to make the value and beauty of the Chianti Classico area become the 10th UNESCO site in Tuscany, as soon as possible”.