“Wine is our time - Cultivate what unites us”, institutional campaign on wine underway

Institutional support for the wine sector, starting with the Ministry of Agriculture headed by Francesco Lollobrigida, has certainly not been lacking in recent months. Through direct initiatives, regulations, and promotional support, for example, but also through Ita - the Italian Trade Agency headed by Matteo Zoppas, Italy has been working on the “EU Wine Package”, now nearing completion (with the final vote expected by the end of February), as well as on the decree allowing the production of dealcoholized wines in Italy, and not only. And now, another long-awaited step for the industry is arriving: on February 15th, the institutional campaign to promote and communicate the value and culture of wine will officially be launched on national TV and radio, and not only. The campaign has been announced several times by Lollobrigida himself, also on WineNews, and its relevance and “necessity” were reaffirmed during the “Wine Roundtable” on December 16th. “Il Vino è il nostro tempo - Coltiviamo ciò che ci unisce” - “Wine is our time - we cultivate what unites us” is the campaign slogan, which will consist of two spots: the first an institutional narrative celebrating the value of the vineyard, history, and Italy winemaking culture; the second an emotional video conveying wine not only as a product but as heritage and intergenerational value. The stated objective is “to build a conscious wine culture for responsible and respectful consumption”. One of the campaign messages is: “wine doesn’t divide; it unites generations, places, and stories. Every time we take care of something, we are already cultivating the future”.
The announcement was made at the end of today “Wine Roundtable”, held on February 2nd in Rome, at the Ministry, with the participation of major trade and agricultural organizations including Federvini, Unione Italiana Vini - Uiv, Assoenologi, Fivi - Federazione Italiana Vignaioli Indipendenti, Confagricoltura, Coldiretti, Cia - Agricoltori Italiani, Fedagripesca-Confcooperative, Legacoop, Federdoc, and not only. During the meeting, an update was also provided on the many measures implemented in recent months: from the work on the EU “Wine Package”, which, among its most important changes, pushed by Italy, extends the maximum duration of promotional projects in third countries from 3 to 9 years; to the extraordinary campaign promoting made in Italy which has given additional resources to Ita itself (its first major event will be Wine Paris, from February 9th to 11th, with more than 100 participating companies) to the Ocm Wine funding program - with all the funded projects and a process of digitizing applications and procedures, as well as an improvement in the publication timelines of the call for proposals which, for the next year, should be ready as early as April, and with the decree that has definitively opened the possibility of producing dealcoholized wines in Italy as well.
“We had promised the institutional communication campaign to a “Supply Chain Roundtable” which is finally united, and from February 15th we will launch it on Rai, on major national media outlets, on social networks, and on platforms closer to younger audiences. It will show how this product, wine, is deeply tied to Italy. As we have always done, we want to reaffirm that wine is also a beverage containing alcohol, but even before that, it is culture, history, and a fundamental element of conviviality, one of the reasons Italian Cooking was recognized as Unesco Intangible Cultural Heritage. It is also protection and stewardship of our territories. As a government, we have always shown our support, as demonstrated by the fact that with the Nrrp we increased funds for supply-chain contracts from 100 million euros to nearly 1 billion euros. Wine is also a fundamental sector for our economy. There have not been the collapses some predicted. There are challenges in the U.S., where tariffs weigh on exports, though not excessively, and where exchange rates likely have even more impact. We will implement further targeted actions, but made in Italy overall remains strong. We hope year-end data after the record 8.1 billion euros in wine exports in 2024 will confirm the expected 73 billion euros for the agri-food sector as a whole”.
Meanwhile, regarding the institutional communication campaign on wine, the industry expresses great satisfaction. “We have been waiting for it for a long time, and finally it will launch in the coming days. It is an extremely important signal for the entire sector”, commented Piero Mastroberardino, coordinator of the “Wine Roundtable”.