Vivino says the Italian consumer is expert, looking for quality and specific territory

Heini Zachariassen, co-founder of Vivino, the reference app in the international wine world, over 1 billion bottles “scanned” worldwide, and 135 million euros in wine sales per year, photographed the profile of the average Italian wine and food consumer at Wine2Wine, revealing he/she is an expert, looking for high quality wines linked to Italian production and the major brands. Wine2Wine is the Vinitaly platform for business, updates and professional training in the international wine community. Zachariassen has turned the spotlight onto the importance for companies to use apps so as to reach customers directly, without having to going through intermediaries. Vivino has been taken as a case history, since it has one of the most well stocked databases in the industry, and therefore it is able to provide detailed profiles of what users want, as well as what interests them about a specific wine. Focusing on Italy, we can see that in the Top 10 of the most sought-after wines on the portal, in first position, above all the others, there is Dom Pérignon, the top symbol of Champagne production, and the only foreigner in the rankings. Next, we find a legend of Italian wine making, Sassicaia of Tenuta San Guido, and then there is Brunello di Montalcino of Castello Banfi. Just below these two, we find Bruciato by Guado al Tasso, the Bolgheri estate of the Antinori family, and then Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Costasera of Masi, Trentodoc Brut by Ferrari, Tignanello also by Antinori, Cuvée Imperiale by Berlucchi, Chianti Riserva Gold Collection by Piccini and Rosso di Montalcino by Castello Banfi. And that isn’t all, there is more. Vivino is also able to select which Regions are the most loved and sought after, as well as which companies are the most successful, at least taking into account online searches. And, in this case, Antinori definitely stands above everyone, followed by Banfi, and Frescobaldi, and the symbols of quality Italian winemaking, namely Donnafugata, Piccini, Cecchi, Feudi di San Gregorio, Masi, Fontanafredda, Not a Wine, Kellerai Bolzan, Tenuta San Guido, San Michele Appiano, Ferrari, Bolla, Sella & Mosca, Sartori, Notte Rossa, Bertani and Ca’ dei Frati. There is yet another profile, which is that of the Italian consumer who is looking for wines characteristic of a specific geographical area or also of a specific territory, which is a rather different profile compared to other markets, where the most scanned wines on Vivino come from supermarkets, and their quality is absolutely inferior.
It must be said, however, as Heini Zachariassen pointed out, that it is accessibility and continuity of every type of wine that differentiates the app from the great wine charts, like Wine Spectator’s or Robert Parker’s. The range of “consulted” wines is much broader (on average about 1.000 bottles per day for Vivino compared to 40.000 per year for the rankings), allowing them to get to the heart of a fundamental question for companies that sell wine: what are consumers interested in? Once again, the data collected on the choices made by users of the platform provide the answer. The first thing a consumer looks for is the rating, or the vote; that is, whether the wine is good or not. The second parameter they are looking for is price, and then follow the more specific characteristics of its taste. Zachariassen emphasized that in analyzing these parameters, companies could learn what “vocabulary” consumers use to describe a good wine and a bad one, therefore also learn how to create greater empathy.