The value of Italian wine is growing. And Unicredit and Nomisma elect the “Best Ambassador”

From Masi Agricola, the prestigious Amarone brand, to Umani Ronchi, a symbol of the rebirth of the Marche region’s enology, from Planeta, which brought wine made in Sicily to the world, to Ricci Curbastro, who has been a pillar of Franciacorta for generations, from G.D. Vajra, historical reference of the Langhe, to Spinelli, ambassador of the wines of Abruzzo, from Feudi di San Gregorio, one of the best known Campanian signatures of national enology, to Cavit, a colossus which with its subsidiaries represents 60% of the vineyard area of the Trentino: here are the 8 wineries nominated “Best Ambassador” by Unicredit and Nomisma, through an analysis that took into consideration over 90 indicators connected, among other things, to investments in environmental and social sustainability, digitization, internationalization, premiumization, brand reputation, and territorial enhancement.
The “Unicredit Wine Award 2023” awards were presented today at “Vinitaly”, where the Nomisma study “The assets that create value for the Italian wine supply chain” was also presented, edited by Denis Pantini, which highlighted how the record of the 8 billion euros of exports in 2022 is the result of a qualitative repositioning, with the volumes of bulk wine decreased from 31% in 2012 to 19% in 2022, and those of sparkling wines increased from 9% to 24%. In the meantime, the export of Italian wine has grown by almost 80% (in value) towards the markets of North America and Asia. The conference was then followed by two speeches on the evolutionary scenario of the regulatory and market framework by Paolo De Castro, MEP and president of the Scientific Committee of Nomisma, and Sandro Boscaini, president of Masi Agricola.
The analysis process on the competitive positioning of the agri-food supply chains started by Unicredit and Nomisma has reached its final stage, which after presenting respectively at “Vinitaly” 2021 and 2022 the super-index Agri4Index dedicated to the rating of the Italian wine supply chain compared to its European and the scoring of the wine regions, on this occasion identified the 8 “Best Ambassador” companies of Italian wine. Through the declination at the company level of the methodological approach used for the previous phases (supply chain rating and scoring of the wine regions) and through an original assessment process that took into consideration over 90 indicators, it was possible to identify 8 “Best Ambassador” among the companies that took part in this evaluation and received the “Unicredit Wine Award”. For Remo Tarciani, Deputy Head of Unicredit Italia, who assigned the Awards, “the long-time analysis of Unicredit-Nomisma, has helped us to identify the strengths and the areas which need the improvement in the Italian wine world, an excellence of Made in Italy that already today we support with loans for 900 million euros. In concrete terms, if on the one hand, we have intervened with extraordinary measures to deal with the complex contingency of recent months, such as the 1 billion euro limit for the liquidity of farms, on the other we have not stopped working alongside businesses to identify new solutions to successfully compete on global markets. I am thinking, for example, of the supply chain Basket Bond, the joint initiative with CDP which led us to structure and issue 12 minibonds for a value of 67 million Euro, of which 8 in the specific wine sector, or the FoodSeed accelerator we recently set up, together with CDP and the Cariverona Foundation, to support startups operating in the Food and AgriTech sectors”.
On the occasion, the Nomisma research “The assets that create value for the Italian wine supply chain” was presented and edited by Denis Pantini, Nomisma’s agri-food and wine monitor manager, who explains how “in a scenario of constantly changing wine consumption between the different areas of the world, the issue of how to give more value to the Italian wine supply chain and through which assets becomes increasingly fundamental to guarantee future continuity for companies in the sector. A premiumization of their wines that Italian companies have undoubtedly implemented over the years, but which still show positioning gaps compared to some competitors, first of all, France”.
And speaking of evolutionary scenarios, in particular in terms of the regulatory framework, Paolo De Castro, MEP and President of the Scientific Committee of Nomisma recalled how “after the new CAP and the Green Deal which required from the agricultural and wine sector a greater commitment towards environmental sustainability, wine is now at the center of public health policies. Also for this reason, the reform of the system of geographical indications assumes strategic importance because the more the wine sector will be able to stay within coalitions with other sectors of the European agri-food sector, the more we will have defense tools against the growth initiatives that want to relegate it to an increasingly marginal role of European policies if not even to exclude it”.