2023: The year ahead

The world of Italian wine is above all composed of small and medium-sized enterprises that, in terms of numbers, cannot compete on their own against the sector giants. The ace they have up their sleeves is the tight connection they have with their area of origin and the relative promotional initiatives for both the territory and the hospitality sector.

As we come to the end of this complicated 2022, I believe it would be opportune to look ahead and make some forecasts on what awaits the world of wine in the coming years. All things considered, things do not seem to have gone too bad this year. Despite a terrible war, the continuing repercussions of the pandemic, the energy crisis, double-digit inflation and a host of problems related to all this, exports have held up as has domestic demand.

For sure, things could have been better in some countries like Germany, which with its 20% of turnover represents the second-largest market for Italian wine exports after the United States, where exports continued to be strong.

The greatest unknowns for 2023 are much different. First among these are the costs and availability of many prime resources, especially energy. Then there is the prohibitionist trend in the European Union in regard to alcoholic beverages, especially for wine, which could create many problems, due to a precise intent to limit consumption and promotional initiatives on domestic and international markets. These are crucial issues that perhaps do not spark great interest on the part of the retail consumer, at least for the moment, but which represent a major threat towards an entire sector involving tens of thousands of people, if not millions, between producers, employees and related sectors.

I would like to humbly remind you all that the world of wine involves not just production, in the strict sense. It also has to do with the management and protection of the land. In Italy alone there are 6,000 sq.km of vineyards, which if lumped together would be greater than the size of the region of Liguria. This means they are an important element in Italy and not just in regard to the many millions of bottles of wine they produce with their colorful labels from all corners of the country.

Then there is the sector’s important economic aspect, with over 15 billion euros in annual turnover, which becomes even greater when you consider the revenue it generates in restaurants, hospitality and tourism. In Italy, unfortunately, the sector is also particularly fragile, due to the fact that there are many wine estates and the vast majority of them are small. They are, in other words, part of the small and medium-size enterprises that have difficulty getting their voices heard by politicians and local administrators.

The sector is so fractionalized that there is not even one Italian wine estate among the world’s Top Ten, in terms of turnover and volume produced, with the average size of vineyards being just over two hectares. Although all this represents a great asset, it is only true if there is a concerted effort to protect it and enhance the value of this sector. This can be done through territorial promotional initiatives like, for example, Cantine Aperte (Open Cellars), organizations like Turismo del Vino and the trend of creating hospitality and restaurant facilities in smaller wine estates. This will certainly not resolve all the sector’s problems, but it is beginning to be part of the solution and I believe this will become more evident in the future.