The year to come

This is not the first time I have used this title to end a year of editorials. For me it sums up a host of hopes, dreams and good intentions and it is also a slightly visionary analysis of what we can expect from the world of wine and food.

We can now say that the 2015 harvest was a good one. It was a hot year, for sure, but there were a lot of healthy grapes and the wines should be of good and even excellent quality more or less throughout Italy. The quantity was decided high and selling all that wine will not be easy. But it’s better that way.

As for what is to come, in my and our small way we hope that Doctor Wine will continue to grow. This year saw us double the number of hits and visits, thanks in part also to the courses we offered at Milan’s Expo 2015 and for the National Wine Tasters’ Association (ONAV), the increasing sales of ourUltimate Guide to Italian Wines and the seminars we held for the Castelli Romani chapter of the Italian Sommeliers Association (AIS). At these events I, we, met with thousands of people and let them get to know us for who we are: Riccardo Viscardi, Dario Cappelloni, Chiara Govoni, and Livia Beradelli, who offered courses for our site-friend Puntarella Rossa, together with Marco Oreggia, perhaps the greatest extra-virgin olive oil expert in the world with his unmissable guide Flos Olei. The same we can say fo all other contributors, such as Vinogodi, Vignadelmar, Francesco Annibali, or the new entries Chiara Giannotti and Antonella Amodio. Then there were the international contests and events that I and Stefania Belcecchi took part in: Concours Mondial de Brussels, Mundus Vini, Decanter World Wine Awards, the Best Italian Wine Awards and Vinitaly.

All this not to mention the work done by our editorial staff. From Stefania Vinciguerra to Iolanda Maggio and Elisabetta Solinas to Marina Thompson, who organized the events for the presentation of our wine guide that saw over 2,000 people take part. We all worked hard and did our part and the results are evident, if you consider how the famous French wine writer Raoul Salama, in his address to the Accademie International du Vin, cited Doctor Wine, together with Suckling and Antonio Galloni’s Vinous, as one of the more authoritative European websites dedicated to wine. There are others, of course, but we are glad that he cited us.

On February 8, we will present the Ultimate Guide to Italian Wine in New York and it will mark DoctorWine’s debut in the United States at the exclusive Yale University Club in Manhattan. With us will be Marco Oreggia with is extra-virgin olive oils. Before the presentation of the guide and a tasting of wines from 50 producers present in the guide (and who I thank for supporting this initiative), there will be a tasting of Brunello Cerretalto from Casa di Neri, the Italian wine that has won the most recognitions from the American press, with a unique preview tasting of their vintage 2010. It will be an event dedicated to the best trade operators on the East Coast and was organized, I’d like to point out, to present our guide and not as a roadshow to promote new wines. Thus the other producers who read this need not worry. We will talk more about this later.

Outside our own little world many things are going on. Italian wine is doing very well, especially sparkling wine and this thanks to the brilliant decision in 2008 to regulate its production. Today the value of Italian bubbly exports has hit one billion euros, representing 18% of all Italian wine exports. Ten years ago it was half this. The effect vintage 2010 is having for the great reds from Langhe and Montalcino we hope will subside in the future. I would like to point out that results these wines are seeing, as well as Chianti Classico, with vintage 2013 is not far behind. I anxiously look forward to sampling the Barbaresco and Chianti Classico Grand Selezione, truly extraordinary wines. We should also see some great Barbera Nizza Monferrato.

Italian wine continues to be a ‘no-show’ on Italian television, with the exception of the second season of the program of Marcello Masi and Rocco Tolfa on Rai 2. Much too little. There is however, a French fiction crime series broadcast by La 7 in the afternoon called ‘DOC Crimes’, (Le sang de la vigne in French or ‘Blood in the vineyard a much better title). It features an enologist/critics, Benjamin Lebel played by Pierre Arditi, who while serving as a consultant in French wine regions also becomes a sleuth who solves murder mysteries. He is a cross between Riccardo Cotarella and Sherlock Holmes, in other words. It is a fantastic show in which wines, winemaking and tasting serve as the backdrop in each episode. What a shame something like this is not produced in Italy. Among the program’s consultants is Jean Marc Roulot, one of the most prestigious wine producers in Burgundy. In Italy the equivalent would be Giuseppe Mazzocolin or Angelo Gaja. The show is yet another opportunity for us to be close to our French cousins at this difficult time.

Happy holidays to all and drink some exceptional wine, as Gino Veronelli used to say.