Lamberto Frescobaldi is the new president of the Italian Wines Union and will lead the association for the next three years flanked by two vice presidents: Chiara Lungarotti (sole director of Cantine Lungarotti, the first entrepreneur in the history of UIV to assume a presidential position) and Sandro Sartor (CEO Ruffino Group).
An important task at a time that is also complex for the wine sector. How did you welcome this nomination to the presidency?
Challenges are always beautiful, they are always interesting to welcome, especially for a sector that is the world of wine. In Italy we talk about wine from the Alps to the whole south and therefore all regions, none excluded, are really very important. And then behind a glass of wine there are many beautiful things, many beautiful countries, beautiful views, beautiful people, so I could only be happy. And really actually I should also be a little bit impressed by having to answer and handle all this Italian beauty.
What are the cornerstones of the political program and with what forces, with what tools do you plan to take the field to overcome the new challenges?
There are various points that are important. One of all, by now we talk about it regularly, not a day goes by without talking about sustainability. So one of the things that is close to my heart is to try to put a little stakes on this term so that it is something measurable, understandable to everyone because otherwise this word “sustainability” creates a kind of positive halo, but then there they must also be facts. So one thing that concerns me closely is that there are facts for which we are sustainable not only with the environment, but with people, with the world of work, but putting the environment first.
Italy is the first wine producing country in the world and despite this the knowledge of our productions still has ample room for improvement. So how can culture and growth go hand in hand?
This is a very good question for which I will try to answer it fully. It may seem strange to you, but the term “wine” on a bottle is no longer written. There are few cases in which “wine” is written on the bottle, Sangiovese, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, Chianti is written, but the word wine is not written. So this is already a cultural fact, we took a leap, there is no longer any need to write, just as the word yogurt is written on a jar of yogurt, in our world there is no need to write the word wine. Then you have to work on it, we have many DOC, DOCG, IGT, people are a little confused but this is also a little bit the beauty of our world, it’s a world that doesn’t have to tell you everything right away, you have to enter it, you have to find out . Today we have tools at our disposal that help us understand a little bit where wine comes from. Many times we talk about an area, then a municipality, then within the municipality of a wine producer, then we even want to know the vineyard. This is wine, knowing the territory.
Speaking earlier, he mentioned the denominations, another important theme because it is difficult to communicate the incredible variety of Italian production abroad. How to overcome this communicative obstacle without losing this identity which, as you rightly said, is also our strength?
You are right to ask me this question but there is no real answer. Simplification is not part of this world, indeed it is part of a certain type of knowledge, so much so that there are sommelier courses, there are WSETs, there are so many things that people actually want to know more about. This here is a world that needs patience.
Thank you, thank you very much president, and good luck with your assignment
A thousand thanks
