“THE ARTISANS OF ITALIAN WINE SHOULD BE PROUD, BUT ALSO BE FRIENDS AND ALLIES WITH THE “INDUSTRIALS”, TO WHOM ITALIAN WINE OWES A LOT OF ITS SUCCESS”, SAYS THE MOST FAMOUS ARTISAN WINEMAKER, ANGELO GAJA

The world of Italian wine is made up mostly of artisan winemakers, who should be proud of their craftsmanship - they are the ones that give impetus to Italian quality production. They need not, however, fear or distrust “industrial” winemaking; rather, they should realize they actually complement each other - like “pasta sauce on pasta”- they can and must walk hand in hand”.
So says the most famous Italian wine artisan, Angelo Gaja, speaking from the Sommeliers headquarters in Rome, where sommeliers and producers share their knowledge of the wine world over 50 years of hard work and success. They support the ability of the artisan winemakers to make their own choices, even against the general trend, but with an open mind: “Long live native vines- they are a resource, but let’s remember that international and blends are not the devil. Sassicaia or Tignanello, our flagship wines, that caused a revolution, actually have nothing native about them, but they are educational”, says Gaja, who built his fortune on Barolo and Barbaresco. Love of the land then, but also open- mindedness, because Italy has the resources, land and knowledge to maximize both its exclusive varieties as well as the major international varieties, and since there are more and more world markets that don’t know our wines well, we need to focus on new and clear messages, and not only (or too) technical.

 “So wine producers as well as sommeliers in the world must become more and more “ entertainers” because some wine drinkers want to know about the culture, but others are looking for simple pleasure and fun. Some people are more interested in what’s outside the bottle than what is inside, and there is nothing wrong with that. If you understand this, according to Gaja you can seize the opportunities that come up even in times of crisis, “the years when global consumption of wine has yielded very little, because wine, like it or not, has gone from everyday drink to “luxury”, accessible not only at high prices, but also at 10-15 euros. Wine is an extraordinary cultural drink that satisfies many different consumers, each according to his purchasing power, and that everyone, even the super-rich, drink to share with someone and this is a resource that no other drink has”. These are the words of a man who has lived 50 fundamental years “in a cycle that owes as much to Mondavi in the U.S., for example, who in the 70’s first realized the Americans’ desire for quality wines,” Gaia says “and Robert Parker, who with his scores has opened a vein and offered an assessment tool to non-experts, but that is now closing. A new one is opening, where the U.S. will still play an important role, but where countries like China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Russia and others, with all their difficulties, will ask for foreign wines and of course, also Italian.
Thanks to the prestige enjoyed by Italy in these countries, (which is far higher than one might think), it has many market opportunities for the whole range of wines that comes from the cellar between 3 and 11 euros, and therefore not only lower-priced wines on the shelf”. Occasions that Italian wine can really grasp, however, only if we put aside divisions and often stagnant discussions, and if we understand that artisans and industrials are complementary: “The first are the “leaven” of quality, which move it upwards; the latter have the strength to open markets, to go abroad and to raise awareness of Italian wines”.
Montalcino, for instance, owes its success to the presence of a historic craftsman like Biondi Santi, and the work of a giant like Castello Banfi. All of Italian wine owes a lot to wine brands like Antinori or Santa Margherita, which led us first and forcefully into the world as a wine producing country, and yet incomprehensibly are too often targeted”, says an Italian artisan wine maker who is proud to be one.