In today’s world, wine reminds us that experiencing the joy of relationships is the “true luxury”

Wine, a “cultural beverage” that has always accompanied mankind, a central element of our identity and cultural heritage, a symbol of sharing and conviviality, has gone from being a necessity to representing a desire, contrary to other goods. It reminds us, in every era, that being together is “a luxury”. This is even more true in the present and future, which see the sector grappling with a decline in global consumption, a complex geopolitical scenario, and the need to reiterate that its consumption is “different” from that of other alcoholic beverages, linked to the table and to a concept of well-being that is not only physical but also mental, to be reevaluated. Listening to the stories of those who produce it, the territories where it originates, and the communities that have chosen to cultivate vines in a specific place, and increasingly in a sustainable way, from those who, like sommeliers, educate about beauty, but also from those who, clearly, have to sell it. Thanks to wine, we must return to taking time to be together and talk: this is its true cultural value. This was discussed yesterday in Rome, during the 45th anniversary of the Italian Sommelier Foundation's (FIS) “Forum della Cultura del Vino” (Wine Culture Forum), which, led by Franco Maria Ricci, has been one of the world’s largest centers of wine culture for 60 years (as evidenced by the presence of Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the FIS last March, ed.). And where sommeliers, whose mission is to spread knowledge about wine among people, have chosen to celebrate the anniversary with Vinitaly, the most important Italian wine event in the world, because together, and together with those who have recounted how the sector has achieved its current success, they have been fundamental in promoting wine as a culture in Italy and increasingly also around the world.
“The current international situation confirms that, now more than ever, experiencing the joy of relationships and brotherhood is truly a luxury”, said Don Paolo Morocutti, professor of theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. “What should be normal, being together, sharing, celebrating, the search for beauty and goodness that have always characterized the human soul, are increasingly a rare and unattainable luxury”. I am particularly grateful to be able to speak here because, as a native of Siena in Tuscany, the subject of wine is very close to my heart. Talking about wine as “the song of the earth to the sky” (as the master of Italian food and wine journalism Luigi Veronelli said, ed.), which refers to the Bible and Christian culture, means embarking on a fascinating journey through history, symbolism, anthropology, and spirituality. Wine, far from being a simple drink, represents a real thread that runs through the Scriptures and the history of the Church, linking the earthly dimension to the divine. And let’s say it right away, if there is one thing that patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and even some rather austere saints agree on, it is wine”, he continued, “because faith, like good wine, should be enjoyed with joy and, above all, together”. Wine, in this sense, he explained, “is a tangible sign of God’s presence in everyday life: where there is a toast, God is there. From an anthropological point of view, wine is an element that unites” and that “accompanies the crucial moments of life: births, marriages, deaths. Even in the Bible, wine is the companion of celebrations, banquets, and moments of gathering. Where there is wine, there is community”. Wine, he concluded, “is a powerful metaphor for life”, and “like life, it should be savored slowly, without haste, savoring every nuance”, and “it should be shared: alone, it does not have the same flavor”.
“We all know how important wine is to our country’s economy and society: we are talking about €45 billion in direct and indirect impact, 1.1% of Italy’s GDP, with €8.1 billion in exports and almost 1 million people employed in over 200,000 companies”, said Federico Bricolo, president of Veronafiere, “but it is also part of our history and culture, accompanying the history of mankind, connecting relationships and sociality, from the Bible to the present day, in which, between being caught up in work and cell phones, perhaps the real luxury is quality relationships. There is no important moment in our lives that is not celebrated with a glass of wine, which makes us appreciate to the fullest the act of sitting down together at the table, something that the world recognizes as excellence. This is also thanks to the 3 million people who, in the 60 years since the FIS was founded, have become sommeliers, spreading Italian wine culture around the world, which is essential at this time of crisis in consumption. On the other hand, looking at the tariff scenario, I am convinced that Italian ingenuity, thanks to the ability of our companies to do well and innovate, will find the best way to face this challenge better than other countries, as we have done in the past. We have a very trying but also challenging future ahead of us, and if the wine world faces it united in vision and promotion, we will achieve results”. In the future, added Adolfo Rebughini, managing director of Veronafiere, “the goal is to transform the customer-supplier relationship into a partnership, which means activating all those listening mechanisms and being a platform for content, trends, technology, and products, one that is constantly evolving, studying, analyzing the market, and also responsible for training. This is essential for opening up new markets, where it is not enough to simply ship a case of wine and view them solely from a commercial perspective, but where a policy based on responsibility is needed to conquer them. This policy involves promoting our incredible heritage of diversity, with the support of technology and data, which are increasingly the basis of the credibility and authority of major trade fairs such as Vinitaly”.
When discussing wine and its culture, journalist and writer Carlo Cambi began, “we must start with Georgia or Armenia, that crescent of mountains of extraordinary beauty, unfortunately now confined to the margins of the world by war. There is much talk of the war in Ukraine and Gaza, but nothing is said about the Armenian genocide, which was the first in history and continues to this day. Beneath the dead of Armenia lies the origin of the vine. The Areni grape variety, the most famous of the Armenian red grape varieties, which we know little about, but which was the progenitor of all grape varieties, as are all Georgian grape varieties. In Italy, we have over 750 grape varieties registered, while in Georgia there are 560, which means that the first mutation of Silvestris into Vinifera probably took place in the shadow of the Sacred Mountains, and from there some pieces of germplasm spread to other regions of the world and other civilizations”. Wine is, after all, “the most obvious manifestation of human character, because Mother Earth produces it and farmers shape its character”. If we were to venture to trace the path that vines have taken across the Italian peninsula and islands, as Professor Attilio Scienza, one of the leading experts in viticulture, has done, who tells us that we already had a wine-growing heritage and that the migration of the vine did not begin before its arrival with the Phoenicians in Magna Graecia and the Syracusan colonies when Italy had a different configuration. But there is great diversity, yes, and I am more perplexed by the definition of “native” and understanding when a vine variety became so. It is better to talk about vine varieties that reside in a certain area and have developed to achieve the highest quality. The biodiversity and richness of our wine heritage is largely determined by the enormous diversity of our country’s territory and the enormous diversity of vine cultivation practices that have been developed over the millennia. And if this explains the reason for diversity from a phenomenological point of view, the profound reason that led men to experiment with different vineyards and grape varieties, as in Italy and Georgia, where wine has the highest cultural value and the greatest diversity, was answered by fashion designer Gianfranco Ferrè when he responded to my question about what luxury is: having time for oneself. So I asked myself, didn’t these archaic farmers have a huge problem, namely that after a while the wine they had produced was no longer good, and this is where technology comes into play, he said, citing Dionysus’ concept of time, whose secret with the Dionysian rites was to free man from the physical dimension and the obsession with time, and of St. Augustine, more relevant than ever since Pope Leo XIV is an Augustinian, and whose main problem in the Confessions is precisely time, whose dimension is only one, eternity, which is only God, while there is the present of the past, the present of the present, and the present of the future. So, take a bottle: you will find in it the present of the past, that is, passion; the present of the present, that is, satisfaction; and the present of the future, that is, the projection towards joy because tomorrow there will be another bottle. Finally, he added, quoting Aristophanes, “when men drink wine, they preserve their friends, win their causes, do good business, and are happy”, and Marsilio Ficino, “the soul does not exist in nature, but it is necessary for matter to encounter the soul, and when this happens, the result is beauty, that is, the degree of quality”.
In the cellar, and even before that in the vineyard, and then in the dissemination of wine culture by sommeliers, “training is a fundamental aspect that enriches, creates culture, jobs, and economy”, emphasized Marco Simonit, agronomist of the “Preaparatori d’Uva”, showing a vine tree that is difficult to identify as either Silvestris or Vinifera and to determine its age, being in the middle of a forest. “By observing it, we can deduce that it has had no contact with humans for many years. A man like Noah, the first man to cultivate vines on Mount Ararat and produce wine, decided to choose not even a territory, but a place to plant them and produce a ‘local wine’, which makes the difference because to create a place you need time, a man, a community that lives in that place over time, and that place determines the genetics, a variety or a mixture of varieties. But also a form, an architecture of the vine, specific and suited to that place, its morphology, its microclimate, its ecosystem, and which is the result of an artisanal approach born of human creativity, and which over time becomes resilient thanks to its connection with the environment. I am fortunate enough to work in many wine-producing regions around the world, where wines of very high quality are made, and I can assure you that one of the aspects that producers care about most is the longevity of their vines, because over time the unique characteristics of the grapes are transferred to the wine, producing wines with a “terroir character”. Therefore, the time it takes for the vines to age is one of the most important factors in making quality wine. The fact is that vines do not make wine in nature, but need humans, whose relationship with the vineyard has evolved, and especially in the last 40-50 years, it has become more difficult for the vine plant, so there is also a need for an industrial approach that can coexist very well with the artisanal one. My job is precisely to help men have a good relationship with grapevines, and to help grapevines tolerate men, ensuring that their resilience is not wasted. Or you no longer make a wine of a place, but of a style”, such as the “maison style”, which, from Champagne to Burgundy and Bordeaux, fits in and can be combined with making wines of a place. “We need to preserve our wine heritage”, he concluded, “and to do this we need training and to pass on knowledge, investing in it, because this means taking care of something that has unique characteristics and that, with time and craftsmanship, takes on value”.
“I have the luxury of working as a winemaker, which is the cellar, which welcomes and collects the fruit not of one year’s work, but of years of work in the vineyard, the results of which can then be seen in the cellar over time”, explained winemaker Barbara Tamburini, winner of the Oscar del Vino (Wine Oscar) as “Best Winemaker” 2019. “In the cellar, you have the task of transforming, so you must have a clear understanding of the entire project in order to achieve a high-quality result, right up to bottling. And so, the cellar is knowledge, and it implies the need to know a territory and its vines, which are a unique heritage to be valued in every single territory, in every single winery. Cellar techniques are very important, and over time they have been refined to the point where today we can talk about knowledge and science that have allowed us to achieve levels of excellence, to obtain the best result in every single vintage. But without ever taking anything for granted, and this is where the art of knowledge comes into play to give life to a creature, which is wine, capable of being the best expression of a vintage, a territory, each individual winery, a synthesis of the vocation of a place and the tradition of the company, but which must always be evaluated with an eye to the future. This also means following the evolution of consumer tastes, which does not mean changing the company’s identity, but rather being in a position that allows us to modify the details. Wine is like a work of art, and wineries are “temples of oenology,” beautiful and futuristic structures where form becomes substance and aesthetics merge with functionality. But to produce a great wine, you need to have a clear concept and the luxury of never taking anything for granted with each new vintage, as if it were the first time, ensuring that each new vintage enriches your wealth of experience and knowledge, allowing you to take care of every detail that makes the difference in the pursuit of the excellence of Italian wine that we bring to tables around the world”.
To define the concept of luxury, Oscar Farinetti, owner of Eataly, entrepreneur, producer, and writer, also refers to Ancient Greece, “to Plato and Aristotle, whom Raphael places at the center of his “School of Athens”, the former with his finger pointing toward the sky and the latter with his arm pointing toward the earth. Plato says that luxury is the ostentation of wealth that can corrupt the soul, leading to the loss of civic virtues. Aristotle has a more optimistic view, telling us that it is an expression of excellence and magnificence, but in a measured way, and that it is right if it is aimed at the common good. What is certain is that luxury is a desire and not a need. At the heart of the social model in which we live, which is consumer society, is the product and its journey from the realm of desires to that of needs in the shortest possible time, becoming a commodity. Wine, on the other hand, is one of the very few products that has taken the opposite path, moving from the realm of needs to that of desires, if we think about how unimaginable it was in the past to sit at the table without wine, how much was drunk, of lower quality and at low prices. Through a series of moves, we have managed to make wine desirable, and today we can say that it has entered the realm of luxury, but only if its image is Aristotelian. And for its production to be aimed at the common good, we must work, first and foremost, with a view to the health of the people and the land where we produce our wine, and I am among those who believe that all Italian agriculture should be organic. The second thing is the fair distribution of wealth among all those involved in creating and promoting wine, from the owner to the workers in the countryside, from suppliers to distributors, from consultants to the end consumer, to whom we must offer a healthy and excellent product at a sustainable price. This does not mean low, because technically it cannot be, but perhaps by giving up other goods from other sectors that we are passionate about”, he concluded, reading passages from his latest book Hai mangiato (Have You Eaten?) published by Slow Food Editore, and showing Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Il Terzo Paradiso (The Third Paradise), or “the sign of infinity with the addition of a larger circle in the center, with which the great artist wants to tell us that if we can bring two paradises together, we can create a third that is the most important of all, like wine, the fruit of nature and technology”.
After all, today, “wine is communicated with attitudes that have nothing to do with wine, especially if you want to introduce young people to wine, and it’s absurd when I think of how many young people attend our courses at our school, where we use words”, said Daniela Scrobogna, president of the Scientific Committee of the Scuola Alta Formazione Fis (Higher Education School for Wine). “Today, even words are a luxury, because we live in an era dominated by rapid, superficial communication, often reduced to fragments of mediated messages. The conscious use of words is the antithesis of banality. Speaking well today is not just a skill, it is a precious asset and a cultural act, a real luxury not in the ephemeral sense of the term, but as the result of an educational journey in stimulating environments and in continuous contact with cultural tools. It means expressing ourselves and what we think. Words thus become a tool for authentic communication, persuasion, and fascination. Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu said that language also has symbolic power; those who speak well not only communicate but dominate. Speaking well, he added, is not just a skill but a form of cultural capital, indicating the set of knowledge, skills, and communication styles that contribute to a form of wealth that is not material but deeply influential at all levels of society. This is the context in which our School operates, offering not only technical training but above all a true cultural melting pot. Here, knowing how to talk about wine does not simply mean describing an aroma or a flavor, but telling stories, evoking territories, educating about beauty, offering the opportunity to develop one's passions and aspirations, transforming them into professional opportunities, providing the tools necessary to compete in the job market, a necessary step to becoming true and serious professionals in food and wine communication. It means developing critical thinking and the ability to analyze the products of the earth in depth. But the words must be simple in concept, yet convey meaning, capable of being understood without ever sacrificing depth. Because speaking well means thinking well, it means transmitting culture, creating beauty, giving dignity to what we say. And in the world of wine, as in every area of life, the luxury of words can make all the difference”.
This also applies, and especially so, to the act of selling wine, “which is an act of great responsibility that encompasses everything that has been said”, emphasized Giovanni Lai, professor of Wine Marketing at the Scuola di Alta Formazione Fis (School of Advanced Training in Wine), “and which is not just marketing, but has three different dimensions: social, economic, and even philosophical responsibility. With the first, we are called upon to convey the value of wine, which is not only economic but also social and cultural, as a tool for socializing and being together. I link the philosophical aspect to the description of its characteristics and the beauty of the territories in which it is born as a “liquid work of art” that each of us makes in our own way, but with a method learned through training, and which must be communicated to the end consumer, making them understand what is behind a bottle of wine and why this product has a certain price, whose value goes beyond the market cost. And also ensuring that the purchase is not a simple impulse or a status symbol, but an experience linked to the value of a product that can compete with time, perhaps even representing an investment. For me, this means knowing how to communicate it, but also knowing how to “distribute” the value of wine, which is also linked to the emotions it can give people”.Another issue that is now coming into play and influencing wine consumption and sales, in line with the growing health trend, is healthiness, as explained by Sara Farnetti, a doctor specializing in Internal Medicine with a PhD in Metabolic Physiopathology: “As a doctor, I have to defend people’s health, but sometimes even we doctors, who are more independent, find it hard to think, Why is wine bad for you? It is alcohol, which is toxic and carcinogenic, and in excess is harmful, but wine is not like other alcoholic beverages, even though it does contain alcohol. In the history of wine, however, we have learned to manage its alcohol content so that it can be drunk, always in moderation, of course. But we cannot allow a minority who overindulge in alcohol to compromise a product that is part of the history of our country and beyond. This is where culture comes into play, because knowing how to communicate the conscious consumption of a quality product is fundamental, for wine as for all other foods that accompany it. And explaining that, today, we have the luxury of being able to drink it consciously and choose how much to drink, unlike other substances from which we cannot defend ourselves because they are everywhere. Faced with such “accusations” against wine, you should say that the way it is drunk promotes conscious, moderate, and intelligent consumption, and we Italians are the best in the world at doing this. This is to reiterate that health protection stems from culture and science, which, as the doctor explained, also allow us to learn about the benefits of substances such as polyphenols, which are present in wine. And to eliminate the distance between the concepts of health and well-being, which we must instead combine, because “healthy longevity”, in addition to being alive and disease-free, is also linked to happiness and therefore to pleasure”.
“Today more than ever, true luxury is foresight, that is, the ability to make choices that respect nature, the earth’s resources, and the right of our children and future generations to live in a healthy environment”, said Stefano La Porta, president of the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, “according to the “Climate Report of the National System for Environmental Production” 2024 that we have presented in recent days, last year was once again the hottest year on record in the last 30 years, with an average temperature increase of 1.33 degrees Celsius. Is the future of our planet at stake? The Earth will survive somehow; it has survived ice ages and many other things. What we are not sure will survive is the human being, nature, and animal species. As an institute, we are committed every day to collecting data, analyzing phenomena, and guiding public policies to put the environment at the center. The wine sector is one of the fields in which this challenge is most evident, as it is a strategic sector for Italy and Europe. Between 2020 and 2025, the European Union produced an average of over 157 million hectoliters of wine per year, more than 60% of world production, and Italy is the leading producer in the Union, ahead of France and Spain. Our wines are ambassadors of Italian excellence around the world thanks to extraordinary progress in terms of quality, innovation, and internationalization. I am reminded of a quote by French poet and diplomat Paul Trudel: “Wine is the earth’s response to the sun”. A poetic image, somewhat romantic, but one that encapsulates what we must reclaim, namely the deep connection between nature, climate, soil, and final products. Wine is not just a commodity or a drink, it is cultural heritage, it is the identity of communities, a factor of cohesion for the economy of territories, and it is also a basic vector, if we want to consider it in this exception as well. It is both material and symbolic culture, it is the spectrum of our history and also of our biodiversity. And here I must give you some more of our latest data, according to which, however, over the last few years, we have seen an 18.4% reduction in annual water availability compared to the historical average. Land consumption is still proceeding at too high a rate, 20 hectares per day. Forest fires in 2024 affected more than 500 square kilometers of our country's surface area. Pollinating insects are now more endangered than ever, and their disappearance poses not only an ecological threat but also an economic one, considering that animal pollination services for agricultural crops have an estimated value of €2.5 billion in Italy and €22 billion in Europe. Climate security is a priority, and we are also seeing a strong capacity to respond. Italy is changing. We see it every day in companies that choose low-impact agronomic techniques, invest in water efficiency, and digitize the monitoring of the sun and microclimate. So what do we really see with the use of sustainability? From my point of view, it means above all a natural transition, that is, seeing sustainability no longer as a cost but as a value, a shared culture. It means choosing quality that comes from respect, transforming every action, from the vineyard to the bottle, into an act of protection towards the landscape, resources, and our communities. And considering every hectare saved from concrete and every drop of water saved as an investment in our future. At the European level, the recent proposal by the EU Commission to support the wine sector is an important signal, but it must be guided, improved, and oriented in line with national interests and environmental values. And Italy, as the leading wine producer, has the right and the duty to play a leading role. Some decisive actions include investing in climate adaptation, researching resistant varieties, and precision agriculture. And then supporting rural communities, young farmers, and family businesses. Protecting biodiversity. Using native grape varieties and local knowledge. Integrating agriculture into strategies for ecological transition and food security. Italian vineyards are not just productive areas; let me tell you that they are cultural monuments. Preserving them means building our future, our economy, and our identity. Every product of the earth, especially in our country, tells a story. And that story, these stories that are ours, must also be the stories of an Italy that has chosen to be fair, conscious, and sustainable”.
“Only cultural awareness, professional ethics, and a serious commitment can instill confidence and security in the ability to build a nation rich in its own wealth”,” concluded Franco Maria Ricci, president of FIS and the Worldwide Sommelier Association. “The time has truly come to talk to young people in schools; we have been saying this for a long time. We have made attempts: motions approved in the Chamber of Deputies, draft laws, but they have never reached their goal. Today, we are trying once again to raise awareness among those who, like us, still believe in the possibility of realizing these dreams. Vinitaly and FIS have made it possible to call it culture, the history of wine in Italy. We have highlighted this concept because the path that Vinitaly and the Association - later the Foundation - have taken together over the past 60 years has been fundamental to the history and culture of Italian wine. It is almost a celebration to be able to look back on the changes that have taken place over these long years in the magnificent success of Vinitaly and FIS in the Italian regions and countries around the world today. Just a few days ago, our Presidency in Thailand requested that a 24-lesson course exclusively on Italian wine be held in Bangkok next October. We have dedicated Forum No. 45 to this journey. Today, and for many years now, wine has overcome the barriers of quality, reaching exceptional levels. We did not expect this because we had not yet understood what the limits of pleasure could be, and perhaps even those who produced this quality did not expect it either. Wine is health, it is a toast, it is culture to be savored. Wine is drunk with the heart. The green of the vineyards covers our country and conveys serenity even to a country that is currently ravaged by winds of war. A protection that you producers have built with wonderful luxury, an indelible gift. The vineyard and the cellar have allowed us to amplify our love for the Land of Wine. Duties, alcohol tests, alcohol-free wine: we encounter obstacles that worry us for national and international sales, but we have encountered several in the past, such as the very serious methanol scandal in 1986. I don’t know how much the tariffs will actually slow down our current sales, what measures will be taken, and which of these will be bearable. The world wants Italian wine, loves it, desires it: could this be the cure for these injustices? We have resolved some of the wine-related issues that have arisen over the years through knowledge, through professional sommelier training courses, teaching that “those who know wine know its limits”, even though, personally, I consider this to be partly a false problem, because we all have the time necessary to eliminate the presence of alcohol once we leave the restaurant. We must attract dealcoholized wine to us, make it our own, considering it a topic not to be attacked but to be treated, because it will have to be a subject of work for quality producers, taking care not to let it be snatched away from us by soft drinks and fruit juices. Then there is wine tourism, which has given people the pleasure of getting to know and appreciate producers, allowing them to talk about their work and instill confidence, and to make people feel the best wine with a handshake, showing the value of their work. Wine is worth the trip and becomes the luxury of wine luxury. Wine is the resort of the “Camere su Vigna” (Rooms on the Vineyard) for a different way of living, a luxury condominium for a space of pleasure. A guide that changes Italy. An Italy that did not exist. Wine tourism, with its €18 billion turnover, has amazed GDP lovers who monitor it to find out about Italy's growth. One thing is certain: wine will continue to give us something to talk about and will always be the gracious companion of our lives”.