On the razor’s edge

An executive board is urgently needed that can make swift decisions in support of the wine sector that, like many others, finds itself on the razor’s edge.

Everyone is improvising and that’s understandable since nothing seems certain. There are some minor, positive signs in regard to this damn pandemic but the future before continues to appear extremely uncertain and disturbing for all of us.

The wine world is for the most part at a standstill and this not so much in regard to vineyards and wineries as much as sales. With the exception of producers who supply leading distributors, the situation is extremely serious and in a total deadlock. This because everything is inter-connected and if tourism, restaurants and hotels are not operational in a reasonable period of time, the situation for the wine sector will become dramatic, even more so than it is already. And while online sales and those in supermarkets are doing well, exports are on hold and sales to hotels, restaurants and bars are stalled. Many producers have not sold a single bottle and as a result are not bottling, except for a small amount, their wine from the 2019 harvest and they have no idea what to do about the next harvest.

It is understandable that compared to the tragedy of lives lost to the pandemic this situation may seem a minor problem. But here at DoctorWine we deal with wine and so, as opposed to those who seem to have something to say about everything, I will limit myself to what I know about.

In recent weeks, we have been overwhelmed by a flood of press releases, many more or less valid initiatives and statements from just about everyone. What is clear is that there is still no common strategy and too many, in my modest opinion, are going it their own way alone. Some are talking about emergency distilling of the wine glut but doing to will generate only the insignificant and unacceptable income of 30 cents a liter. Others have suggested using European OCM funds for initiatives in Italy and other European Union countries rather than for those outside the EU, but no one know how or when to do this and the clock is ticking.

There is also the idea of deferring payments to until restaurants and hotels reopen but then everything is connected and there is uncertainty over what their business will be like and what the numbers will be.

We may be able to hold on for a while, several weeks, but not much more. And then all those who kept talking about Italian “excellence” in regard to tourism, wine and food will have to explain whether their words were just political claptrap and empty rhetoric.

An executive board is thus urgently needed that can make swift decisions in support of the wine sector that, like many others, finds itself on the razor’s edge. This is not rocket science and time is running out to take action.