About 7.7 hectares of surface with 38 rows of vines will be planted on the sloping roof of the new Amerigo Vespucci terminal at Florence airport in Tuscany. Roof lights 1.2 metres in size will be installed between the vine rows to fill the inner building with natural light. The vineyard will be visible from the sky and from the top of Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral in the city. The architects conceiving this project explained that the green roof will not only serve as a new landmark for the city’s sustainable future, but also as a symbol of the tradition, history and innovative spirit that continue to drive the Italian economy into the 21st century. A local vintner will farm and harvest the “flying vines”. The resulting wines will be made in a cellar built beneath the roof. However, the first plantings are scheduled to occur in a distant future, by 2035, at the end of the project.

On March 19th, more than 100 wine operators, including buyers, HoReCa and media professionals, attended the “Preview of the 56th Vinitaly” hosted in the Residence of the Italian Ambassador to Belgium, H.E. Federica Favi.
The initiative, promoted by Veronafiere with the support of the Embassy and in collaboration with the ICE Trade Agency, the Italian-Belgian Chamber of Commerce and the Italian Wine Consortium, was the preliminary event for the presentation of the 2024 edition of the International Wine and Spirits Exhibition on the following day at the European Parliament.
Vinitaly Previews are part of a programme of initiatives that the new governance at Veronafiere has implemented over the last two years to build, for the first time, a unified team to promote Italian wine by combining the know-how of the brand with input from the Italian Government, the reference Ministries, Embassies, entities and promotion structures to activate an increasingly intense agenda of sharing with players in the sector on a global scale.
“This event celebrates another excellence among the many Italy has to offer: our wine-makers. Italian wine exports to Belgium came to around 220 million euros in 2023, an encouraging result that can still be further improved. By working together, we can reach up to new heights and strengthen ties between our two countries, thereby paving the way for opportunities for shared growth and prosperity,” said Ambassador Federica Favi in her welcome speech.

The head of Italy’s wine trade body has called on the country’s producers to diversify their export marketplaces after total shipments to the five primary markets plunged in 2023: the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Japan and Canada account for about 56% of Italian wine exports combined.

Republished from 06 April 2023,

Vinitaly 2023 ended with successful numbers and a positive feeling of renewed business impulse for Italian wine at home and abroad. This is a sign of recovery from years of Covid crisis.  Quantitative data is as follows: 93,000 total attendance, of which 29,600 foreigners, according to Veronafiere (Vinitaly’s organising structure), with a +20% increase in the number of foreign buyer entries, over 2022, from 143 countries).

Exposers and organisers were satisfied by the influx of buyers and professional visitors, both foreign and Italian.  National sales represent a share of the total market that, often obscured by export successes, remains the most important, overall.

“We closed Vinitaly 2023 in full swing, with choral participation from operators, institutions and media. We are particularly satisfied with the feedback we are getting from companies and terroirs, which represent the real strength of this event”, said Veronafiere president Federico Bricolo. He added: “the goal is to build a permanent and coordinated promotional platform with institutional partners, capable of attracting incoming investment in Italy and simultaneously on Italian wine exports abroad cantered on Veronafiere, with new impulse in Brazil, China, United States, Japan, South Korea and the Far East”.

“The investments made in favour of foreign attendance”, said Veronafiere CEO Maurizio Danese, “have given a first concrete result to a Vinitaly expo that we want to be increasingly decisive for the business of exhibitors who set aside significant resources for the event. A supply-demand matching that has worked, as demonstrated also by the more than 11,000 appointments planned between exhibitors and buyers on the Vinitaly Plus platform, which are in addition to those set directly between companies and buyers. The new course has begun but it is certainly not over: Vinitaly”, Danese concluded, “will always be the carrier of wine Made in Italy, both here and abroad, in terms of development of the sector and its companies, and this is what we are trying to do”.

The top five countries of foreign attendance are: the United States well ahead of Germany. Third remains the United Kingdom, while China returns to fourth position, bypassing Canada. Notwithstanding the general growth of the European market, we note the great return of operators from all non-EU markets: Asia, which more than doubled (+116%) driven by the return of the Chinese who exceeded 1,000 presences, and Japan (+143%). The Americas marked +38% with exploits from the US (+45%) and Brazil (+46%), as well as further consolidation from Canada (+19%). Australia also in triple digits, at +130%.

After the main expo in Verona, “Vinitaly China” will opened soon, in Chengdu (April 11) the first event organized by the subsidiary Wine to Asia – with one of the most influential platforms dedicated to wine in China: “Wine Sommelier”.  Masterclasses with the only Chinese master sommelier Yang LV in addition to a business forum.  Vinitaly will then fly to Shenzhen, on April 14, in the Italian Pavilion of the Hainan Government Fair, for a tasting and presentation of Italy at “Wine to Asia” (May 11-13), together with !Ice Agenzia and Fondazione Altagamma”. In Shenzhen, at Veronafiere’s international event, attendance is expected at more than 450 exhibitors from 20 countries.

Finally, please note that Vinitaly 2024 will be staged from April 14 to 17 in Verona next year.

Adverse weather events damaged vinegrowing activities across Europe, paricularly in France.  There, hail storms severely hit Meursault and Mercurey, with on average around 10 to 20 percent damage) and the Côte Chalonnaise further south (an initial estimation of 50 percent damage to the Chardonnay and 20 percent to the Pinot Noir at Château de Chamirey in Mercurey, for instance).  Moreover, following recent heatwaves, numerous regions in central and eastern France were hit by thunderstorms, with hail reported (beyond Burgundy) in the Massif Central and heavy rainfall, hail and power cuts Jura and Alsace.

Still in France, a much-discussed mildew outbreaks affected Bordeaux, threatening production.  Bordeaux continues to be plagued with high humidity and heavy mildew pressure – as has Bergerac, the South West (in particular Irouléguy, with parts of Jurançon also hit), Languedoc and even Provence.  The head of the FDSEA (National Federation of Farmers) Union in Bordeaux, Jean-Samuel Eynard, told wine news website Vitisphere.com this week that: “The situation is truly catastrophic” and that “In 40 years in the industry, I’ve never seen the like.”

In Bergerac, the head of the Federation of Bergerac and Duras Winegrowers organisation told regional newspaper Sud-Ouest: “We’ve been at war [with mildew] for two months and we’ve lost”.

Piedmont (Italy) was hit with hail in early July after a supercell storm broke just southeast of Turin, hitting parts of Roero and Asti on a northwest-southeast line across Alba. Reports indicated that the likes of Barbaresco, Neive and Alba itself were hit although the damage varies from commune to commune.  “We received reports of hail the size of tennis balls and extensive damage to crops,” Alberto Cirio, president of the Piedmont Region, told regional news station TGR Piemonte. Other reports said hail the size of walnuts had damaged crops and vines in the region. Europe isn’t alone. Wildfire season has also hit California although fires there are, so far, confined to the Central Valley region and its eastern hillside (the Sierra Foothills) and appear to be some distance from vineyards.

Bordeaux’s Entre-deux-Mers wine region has been cheated out of €43,000 ($48,000) after payment for a bulk shipment of wine glasses for a tasting event went through a scam email.

According to regional newspaper Sud-Ouest, the scam only came to light at a general meeting of the Entre-deux-Mers winegrowers union in which its president, David Labat, revealed the region had been duped out of the cash several months ago.

“We’re trying to talk to our bank in an effort to retrieve some of the funds but it is not going well,” Labat reportedly said.

It’s understood the culprit was located in the Rhône-Alpes region of southeast France although they remain at large.

“Luckily, the wine region known for its whites is not in the red,” said Sud-Ouest.