Valoritalia: Wine - Tuscany Sustainability Italian model

The region described today during the round table "Tuscany: the future is sustainable", organized by Valoritalia in Florence, is increasingly green oriented, in the presence of Marco Remaschi, Regional Councillor for Agriculture, Riccardo Ricci Curbastro, President of Federdoc, Stefano Zanette, President of Equalitas, Francesco Liantonio and Giuseppe Liberatore, President and General Manager of Valoritalia respectively.

 

From the new intervention of about 15 million euros within Psr 2014-2020 to arrive at 30% of agricultural area converted to organic to the stop to glyphosate from December 31, 2021 for the entire region, ahead of the lines of the European Union, from the development of self-assessment protocols of corporate sustainability to environmental protection mechanisms introduced under the funds OCM Wine. What emerged from the meeting is in fact the portrait of a virtuous wine model, recognized as an example of "good practice" based on sustainability and innovation in agriculture, which, not by chance, is the protagonist of the new issue of the quarterly magazine Valorimag, published by the certification body leader in Italy in the control of DOCG, DOC and IGT wines and presented today in the margins of the round table. A monograph - which can also be downloaded from the website www.valoritalia.it - which gathers in 90 pages points of view, reflections and insights on one of the regions bearing the flag of Made in Italy wine.

 

The avant-garde spirit towards these themes is also demonstrated by the testimonies of Sandro Sartor, CEO of Ruffino (one of the first large Italian companies to believe in organic farming), Michele Manelli of Salcheto (one of the pioneering wineries certified Equalitas) and Giovanni D'Orsi of Casaloste (the first certified organic farming company of Panzano in Chianti in 1994).

 

"The furrow traced by the producers themselves - explains the Councillor for Agricultural Policies of the Region of Tuscany, Marco Remaschi - has been confirmed over the years by far-sighted regional agricultural policies, implemented through European funds. Suffice it to mention, for example, the 26 projects financed for more than 6.5 million euros with Submeasure 16.2 of RDP 2014-2020 in favor of precision viticulture methods, the SOSWine project that led to the determination of the environmental footprint of the product and the two projects of the call PIF 2015 on protocols for self-assessment of sustainability, namely SOS.T. and SOSTE-NOBIL-ETÀ. This therefore demonstrates that the Region, interpreting at best the general change of pace for the benefit of consumer health, the protection of biodiversity and wine-growing landscapes, has taken on board the demands of the sector, which has always distinguished itself for its aptitude for innovation.

 

The Tuscan wine sector currently exceeds 23,000 companies, more than two-thirds of which are located in areas dedicated to the production of PDO wines, covering more than 92% of the regional vineyard area (60,000 hectares). Added value is provided by 11 DOCG, 41 DOC and 6 IGT. The turnover generated by the bottled PDO and PGI wines chain is around one billion euros, equal to 11% of the national total indicated by Ismea, of which about 550 million is for exports (57% in non-EU countries; 43% in EU countries). These results are the result of significant investments made thanks to the OCM Vino funds, which since 2000 have exceeded 307 million euro, and to the 2014-2020 Rural Development Plan, which in the fifth year of programming has allocated resources worth 867 million euro with 61 published calls for proposals (in practice 91.3% of the total budget provided for in the programme).

 

Moreover, thanks to the CMO Wine Measure "Restructuring and conversion of vineyards", over the last ten years more than 45% of vineyards have been renewed. This dynamism is also evident on the organic front, where more than 5,000 operators (6.6% of the national total) work for the continuous improvement of environmentally friendly cultivation, which is increasing year by year. In 2018, with an increase of over 6% over 2017, the area cultivated in Tuscany with organic farming has in fact exceeded 138 thousand hectares, covering 7.1% of the national total. Looking only at the wine sector, with over 15,000 hectares, the Tuscan share exceeds 14% of the organic areas in Italy (source: SINAB calculations).

"From art to wine - declared the president of Valoritalia, Francesco Liantonio - Tuscany represents quality in all its forms and for decades has played a leading role in production and consumer perception. Among the factors behind this success are certainly the far-sighted choices and the work shared between consortia, companies, certification bodies and institutions that have allowed this region to become a model of reference even when it comes to sustainability and innovation. Tuscany is in fact a laboratory where we continuously experiment and where we often lay the foundations for future trends. Suffice it to say that it was the first to enhance wine tourism, acting as an incubator for the phenomenon that today expresses a value between 2.5 and 3 billion euros and even introducing in advance of the other Italian regions a law governing the wine tourism activities of its wineries, and that even before it became a widespread practice has promoted organic production in a participatory key through the bio-district of Greve then expanded into the bio-district of Chianti.

 

The pioneering role of the Consorzi di tutela toscani in terms of product traceability and the importance of the appellations of origin of this region in the progressive affirmation of Italian viticulture was emphasised by the Director General of Valoritalia, Giuseppe Liberatore.

 

Historical names such as Chianti, Chianti Classico, Brunello, Nobile di Montepulciano and Vernaccia - explained Liberatore - have undoubtedly contributed to the radical transformation of the wine sector and to the first phase of expansion of Italian wine, building that brand with a strong territorial identity that today is the forerunner for the "made in Italy" wine in the world. At the same time, faced with the growing demand for transparency as a guarantee of quality, it was the Tuscan consortia that experimented in advance on all the procedures and methodologies that led to the definition of clear mechanisms for the whole country. In 2004, the Chianti Classico consortium was in fact the first to be authorized to apply a plan of controls to verify the requirements of the specification. An innovative approach linked to the passage of the verification functions from the consortia to the certification bodies that has allowed our sector to equip itself with a national system of rules and guarantees recognized throughout the world for its value".

 

A value that Valoritalia currently guarantees by certifying 221 denominations of origin (46 DOCG, 126 DOC and 49 IGT), equal to 42% of the national total of DOs and, in quantitative terms, to 53% of the production of PDO and PGI wines. Each year, Valoritalia also certifies more than 1.7 billion bottles and distributes more than a billion state marks. Overall, the "ex cellar" value of the wine product certified by Valoritalia is about 6.8 billion euros.