“WINE-LOVERS” AND “GAV” (WINE BUYER GROUPS) IN ITALIAN WINERIES: TWO NEW PROTAGONISTS AMONG LATEST TRENDS REPRESENT AN IMPORTANT AND IMMEDIATE MARKET OUTLET FOR WINEMAKERS

They are informed on everything that occurs in the wine world, they have a higher economic availability, they personally know many of the most important Italian producers as well as foreign ones (with French makers in the lead), and they buy their wine almost exclusively and directly from wineries: this is the identikit of the “wine-lover”, a type of enthusiast, and, above all, a potential client for the most important wineries, with a phenomenal growth that has been registered by www.winenews.it, one of the most important Italian sites dedicated to the world of wine, and which will be the object of study at Vinitaly (Verona, 29 March – 2 April 2007), the most important international fair for the wine sector.
Just as the “GAV” (Wine Buyer Groups), those who prefer to “do it themselves” than go through middle-men for wine acquisitions, will also be taken into consideration. They are usually organized in groups of five or six people, who are “monomaniacal” for a specific type of wine: from fans of Champagne to Barolo, from Pinot Noir to Brunello. They meet in private homes, or, often on blogs, to share experiences and to take pilgrimages, in turns, to the places where their preferred wines are made, buying them direct and then dividing them amongst the group.
The element that is similar between “wine-lovers” and “GAV” is that they buy directly from producers. Often, “wine-lovers” also belong to “GAV”, but usually they represent an elite group of habitual and “solitary” consumers of top label wines. “GAV”, on the other hand, are not wine snobs, but a group that shares costs in order to be able to taste more important wines. Both in the first and second cases, they represent a new and very important clientele for wineries (especially the high-end ones), and it should not be excluded that there may begin a “hunt” for these types of clients.
”GAV” have particular characteristics and each buying group has precise motivations: they are more common in northern and central Italy and their buying lists have precise preferences; made up of men and women, between the ages of 35 and 55, middle income, they are motivated by their passion for good wine and have found a way to afford it even with a limited budget. Their motto could be, “better to have just one good glass and a memorable experience”. Sometimes “GAV” are started by wine bars and run by true wine-lovers who organize interested clients in order to get them on their way to knowing the delights of Italian and other wines. They may host the buyer groups and promote them through networks and the direct experiences that can help diffuse good wine drinking, even to those who can’t usually afford to do so.
“Wine-lovers”, people who never make compromises, are often as up-to-date as sector workers on the newest companies throughout the territories, those that are the best, and they are even disposed to cross the border to other mythical wine countries like France. They have good wine cellars, equipped with the most modern climate control systems, or temperature controlled wine collections set up in their kitchens. Friends of the owners of the most important wine shops and bars of their towns, they are often contacted by these owners and supplied with the particular wines they request, of long ago vintages, to be inserted in very special tasting occasions. They are largely concentrated in urban centers, they have an average age between 30 and 45 years and they have often become wine-lovers by following and older friend’s influence, possibly having been part of a “GAV” as an amateur, and leaving once they had surpassed their maestro.
Daniela Vidotto