Trentino and Trentodoc, a natural growth (like the mountains) also thanks to the “bubble effect”

If Trentodoc is contributing to the growth in the world of the passion for Italian Metodo Classiche bubbles, a phenomenon not only of consumption, now deseasonalized and cleared through meals, but also of custom - in which investments in quality, communication and promotion of territories play an important role, but also “sociological” motivations such as the fact of representing that conviviality that the whole world envies Italy - Trentino is a “pioneer” territory in promoting quality tourism in Italy, bringing together the love of the mountains and sports, with food and wine, history, culture, events, and increasingly, attention to nature that predominates (and in which, today, we go in search of traces of wine in works of art, do yoga in the vineyards and experience the Ai for in heroic viticulture). A “natural growth”, thanks in part to the “bubbly effect”-13 million bottles of Trentodoc sold in 2023, with a 3% increase in value for 185 million euros in sales, and with Trentino considered the No. 3 for quality sparkling wines, after Veneto with Prosecco and Lombardy with Franciacorta, although it occupies only 2% of national production but with 85% of Doc and Docg wines, and whose recognizable factors are precisely quality and territory - which has also deseasonalized tourism, and is the way forward in times when we talk about “governing” overturism, but also about bringing people back to wine. That's how it is all year round, between the Alps and the Dolomites, a Unesco World Heritage Site, and that's how it was during the days of the “Trentodoc Festival” 2024, in Trento, promoted by the Autonomous Province of Trento with the Trento Doc Institute-which brings together 67 sparkling wine houses of excellence, which opened their doors-and Trentino Marketing, in collaboration with “Corriere della Sera”, to tell the 360-degree story of the Italian Metodo Classico of mountain par excellence. An opportunity, for WineNews, to talk about the future of one of the most important Italian wine territories, home of Trentodoc, and of the reds Teroldego and Marzemino, whites such as Müller Thurgau and other native white grape varieties, but also international ones such as Pinot Grigio, with experts from the Edmund Mach Foundation of San Michele all'Adige, one of the world's leading agronomic and viticultural research centers, analyzing the effects of climate change on viticulture, and with producers, taking stock of the 2024 grape harvest, also with the Consorzio Vini del Trentino (our video report online in the coming days, ed.). An area in which wine is an economic engine, stressed Luciano Ferraro, deputy editor of the “Corriere della Sera” and artistic director of the “Trentodoc Festival”, an event that, at edition No. 3, “flanks the strength of the Trentodoc brand, which has been growing steadily for a decade, with the communication of Italy’s leading publishing group. The wineries that have brought Trentodoc to the world - Ferrari, Cavit, Cesarini Sforza, Rotari (Mezzacorona) - have led the way. But all of the Trentodoc companies brought every side of mountain bubbles to light. Industry professionals, from the president of oenologists Riccardo Cotarella to Italy’s top sommeliers led by Ais-Associazione Italiana Sommelier president Sandro Camilli, discussed the hot topics of the moment: technological innovation, the use of artificial intelligence, climate change, the consumer crisis, and the health wave in Europe. Alongside the debates, a series of performances. One for all: actor Michele Placido presented with Marco Morricone and Valerio Cappelli, the book dedicated to Ennio Morricone, with the maestro’s music punctuating the memories. Two phrases from two speakers, summarize the message of this Festival that aims to put wine and culture on stage. The first is by Georg Riedel, the “king” of glasses: wine is an emotion to be shared with the people we love. The other, is by Monsignor Martino Signoretto: we are ritual beings. Wine has a lot to do with conviviality and the people you love”. “With their identity value, the mountain bubbles represent”, said Maurizio Fugatti, president of the Province of Trento, ”the spirit of the Trentino community; Trentodoc has a strong link with the territory and is very successful throughout Italy and beyond: a path of growth in which our producers strongly believe, because this growth is linked above all to quality”. Trento Doc President Stefano Fambri, too, reiterated that Trentodoc’s growth path is not only linked to sales, but above all to the quality and reputation of the product: “sparkling wine houses convey their connection with the territory through the fruit of their labor. The mountain is our distinguishing feature”. For Matteo Lunelli, president and ceo of Ferrari Trento, “the future challenge for Trentodoc is to go across borders. The world’s top wine import market is the U.S., so they represent the biggest current and future opportunity. But the challenge, the real unexplored land, is to get the diversity of Trentodoc to the consumers of the world”. And if, as Enrico Zanoni, ceo Cavit, pointed out, “today it is evident the loss of centrality of wine, whose first access was in the family with the famous glass of red wine to which you were introduced by your grandparents as a cultural tradition”, at the same time, “this historical moment for sparkling wines is really very interesting and reserves so many opportunities since the Metodo Classico is liked by the new generations and by the female public - according to the Master of Wine, Essi Avellan - in the last 20 years the world of bubbles has changed radically: of all markets, Italy is the most dynamic and most rapidly evolving, but price positioning is the critical issue for Metodo Classico made in Italy. We must also aim in terms of price to be competitive with Champagne”. All peculiarities peculiar to bubbles such as Trentodoc, which, due to their being a “contemporary” wine in terms of freshness, gradation and versatility, and almost a “non-wine”, given that they come, by now, to replace it in consumption occasions that are solely and exclusively the prerogative of sparkling wines-which hold up, in contrast to the general decline in consumption, also due to more occasional drinking, with 141 bottles sold in 2023 in gdo and the hotel sector (including 2.7 million Metodo Classico) and with exports doubling in the last 10 years (from 17% to 25%) and steadily increasing, according to a Nomisma Wine Monitor survey - can help bring people back to wine, starting with young people.