Strong markets, a great 2021 vintage and more: Italian wine at the “Merano Wine Festival”

It is an Italian wine with the wind in its sails on the markets of Italy and the world, in many cases outperforming not only, of course, 2020, but also 2019, the year of the export record, at 6.3 billion euros, and whose surpassing seems increasingly within reach, as told by producers such as Elena Walch, Franz Haas, Roberta Stelzer (Maso Martis), Lucia Letrari (Letrari), Sabrina Tedeschi (Tedeschi), Giampaolo Speri (Speri) and Luca Stortolani (Italy sales manager of the Chianti-based Cecchi), as well as a true “Marco Polo” and globetrotter like Matteo Lunelli, at the helm of the Lunelli Group and Ferrari Trento, an icon of Trentodoc (and best producer in the world in “The Champagne & Sparkling Wine World Championships 2021”, the “world championship of bubbles”, created by Tom Stevenson), and Luca Pizzighella, “brand ambassador” of Signorvino, a wine chain with 24 points of sale throughout Italy, and yet another new opening planned both in Italy and abroad. And as told, with a focus on the USA, by “The Italian Wine Girl” Laura Donadoni, author of the book “Custodi del vino. Storie di un’Italia che resiste e rinasce”. And it is also an Italian wine that, with the heart divided in half between a recovery that seems robust and full and the understandable fears brought by what is now called the fourth wave of Covid-19, which is causing some restrictions to return in many countries around the world (even if, for example, the reopening of the US borders has just taken place, at least for those who have been vaccinated, ed.), is looking to the future with confidence, thanks also to a 2021 harvest that is not very generous in terms of quantity but for many is superlative in terms of quality, from the North to the South, as Hans Terzer, oenologist and director of San Michele Appiano (who, in Merano, also presented his complex and intriguing wine, Appius 2017, Chardonnay, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon, a “top selection” half of which come from old vineyards, now permanently used to make the cuvée, and half from less frequented vineyards, but considered this year congenial to the interpretation of the vintage and to the achievement of the oenological objectives, in combination with the creations of the starred Herbert Hintner (Zur Rose Restaurant, ed.) and the Piedmontese Guido Conterno (Conterno Fantino). But also from the Veneto region, Silvia Allegrini (Allegrini), Tiziano Castagnedi (Tenuta Sant’Antonio in Valpolicella), Franco Adami (Adami, in Conegliano and Valdobbiadene), Anna de’ Besi (Punto Zero, in the Berici Hills) and Camilla Lunelli (Ferrari Trento), as well as from the voices of Chiara Lungarotti of the Lungarotti winery in Umbria, Martino Manetti of Montevertine in Tuscany (author of the legendary Pergole Torte) and Enrica Cotarella, who, with Famiglia Cotarella, touches on the creations of the starred Herbert Hinterner of the Zur Rose restaurant, Enrica Cotarella, who, with Famiglia Cotarella, also visits Umbria, Lazio and Tuscany (in Montalcino, with the Le Macioche winery), Jarno Trulli, who, having given up Formula 1 racing, now dedicates himself to his vineyards in Abruzzo, with Podere Castorani, Alessio Di Majo Norante, spokesman for wine in Molise, and then, from Etna, Sicily, Sofia Ponzini (Cantine Bosco), and oenologist and producer (with DueMani, in Tuscany) Luca d’Attoma.
But it is also an Italian wine that looks to the future, which means sustainability at every stage of the production chain, starting from the vineyard, where the new resistant vines, the Piwi, are slowly finding their place, as described, among others, by oenologist Nicola Biasi. Indications and ideas came from Helmuth Köcher’s “Merano Wine Festival 2021”, which closes today, another event that wanted to mark, in its own way, the restart of the wine “circus”, and which once again brought together producers, consumers, operators and lovers of fine wines from all over Italy in the “salon” of Italian wine. There was also talk of wine communication, to be revamped and renewed, with personalities such as Carlo Guttadauro, art director and director of the Bisol 1542 brand short film, who talked about the bond between “lightness and beauty” that links Prosecco Superiore di Conegliano and Valdobbiadene to Venice.