Wine industry innovation: Italy after Brunello

De Vinis, the official publication of the Italian Sommeliers Association (Associazione italiana di sommelier – AIS), recently featured an interview with Luca Zaia, Italy’s new agricultural minister.

That Italy has a new government will come as no surprise to any of us; it is also a more right wing government and Zaia comes from the Northern League party – considered one of Italy’s most right wing political parties around.

But for the purposes of the post, I’ll leave politics aside as the intricacies of Italian politics are beyond my comprehension and serve no use here. A word of introduction though is required to put this interview into context.

Italy is virtually beyond crisis in Europe. It’s economy is at a stand still, or worse, in decline, it’s labour market is woeful and it’s losing ground to new EU entries and other stalwarts of the Union that have traditionally been countries that Italy could count on as being worse placed than itself (Spain, Greece and Portugal come to mind). The country is, in short, stagnating.

Why should agriculture then, be so important? The fluffy side of me says it’s about the long held and respected Italian lifestyle and Italian traditions. It should also be noted that this is not just for the south, but the north as well. It’s also a lot about money and the economy – who Italy will feed on its local turf, and who it will export to. And the wine industry goes to the heart of both.

The interview between De Vinis and Luca Zaia is relatively soft, but interesting all the same. The minister’s solution to the stagnation mentioned above can be summarised in one word: innovation.

Zaia says that what the Italian agricultural industry needs most is innovation. “Agriculture and whoever has anything to do with it, needs innovation from any point of view.”

At this point in my post it is prudent to keep in mind the Brunello di Montalcino scandal and all it stands for. I cannot here, take down everything that’s been written and said in recent months on this issue, but its impact in Italy is not to be underestimated. In future the episode will represent a culmination of Italian embarrassment, shame and anger that I hope will resolve itself in time. The concern over the image of the Italian wine industry both here and abroad can’t be overstated.

The minister says: “Italian wine needs investment and services, to be supported by a strong institutional presence in the international promotion of our wines.” He mentions that Italian wine has reached more than three billion euros a year worth of export for the country.

While Zaia doesn’t specify exactly what innovation will be undertaken and how, I think he’s hit the nail on the head as to the direction which Italy, and Europe generally, needs to follow. I’ll follow up this post in the next couple of days as it’s a theme I’ll likely return to. But in the meantime it gives us something to think about, while I search out some examples of Italian innovation in the agricultural industry that go behind “nice” agriturismi, culinary tours and Chianti wine tastings. Italy is, after all, a creative country.

Wine list pricing and BYO - what can the consumer expect?

After discovering this new Italian wine variety, “Gavi”, I thought I’d track it down in the supermarket to have a second tasting and perhaps record my tasting notes.

While there were a couple of options from different producers to choose from, I was looking for “Terre da Vino” Gavi as that what we’d drunk in the restaurant. I found it at an excellent price of five euros.

In fact, the price was so good, it highlighted the huge mark-up that our restaurant had put on the bottle. On the wine list, Terre da Vino Gavi was could be found for the princely sum of 15 euros. What’s more, the producer was not named so that it could be Gavi from anyone – in this case, you’re buying the wine style, not the producer, which is not so common in Italy. It would be like buying chianti from anyone, which would result in vastly different styles and pricing.

The price difference begs the question as to how much of a mark-up is considered good practice in Italy. My boyfriend and I had an argument about this, because he thought it was reasonable to expect that increase on a bottle costing five euros in the supermarket (which would in turn have put its own increase on the bottle).

He said it was unlikely you’d find that increase on a bottle costing 100 euros, but still we’re talking about a 200 percent increase! This is from a supermarket to a restaurant, so I’d be curious to know what the distributor prices it at.

While we will never see this in Italy, it makes a convincing argument for Australia’s BYO system here. In my opinion the Bring Your Own practice in Australia is appreciated by the locals and visitors alike, and has its place in middle range restaurants that can’t afford, or don’t provide for, an extensive wine list. I would not like to see it in more upmarket restaurants, but it is an innovative, and fascinating, aspect to the restaurant industry.

I once explained this system to a fellow student in my sommelier course, who thought it was great from a consumer’s perspective but who would balk at implementing it in his own restaurant. The debate emerged after a lesson about the role of the sommelier and the mark-up that could be expected. The argument went that a bottle of wine is not an in-house production of the restaurant, and the consumer is purchasing an extraneous product for his drinking pleasure, a practice which no restaurant should exploit.

So, here’s to Australian BYO restaurants, and the hope that they will be recognised as a legitimate dining choice, while we ask ourselves how much extra we can expect to pay, without feeling like we’ve just been the victim of a swifty by the restaurant and its wine list.