The weekly review of news on Italian wine for the Chinese market!
We are opening this edition in Piedmont, where another 150 hectares of vineyards enter the register of areas with eligibility to claim the Barbera d’Asti docg. The ranking was approved by the Department of Agriculture and Food of the Piedmont Region after having examined the requests, for a total of 250 hectares, with 299 companies involved, presented by the Barbera d’Asti and Monferrato Wines Consortium. The Regional Councilor for Agriculture and Food Marco Protopapa said: “The large number of companies that participated in the tender shows that the DO Barbera d’Asti is once again considered competitive in terms of production and that future plants are viewed with positivity” .
“Fivi4Future – The winemakers cultivate research” is the initiative of the Italian Federation of Independent Winegrowers (Fivi), which aims to reduce the use of pesticides by 50% by 2030. The research project sees the collaboration with the consultancy firm Perleuve of the agronomist Giovanni Bigot (the author of the Bigot index, which measures the quality of a vineyard) and with the University of Udine, and aims to increase the biodiversity of vineyards through the progressive elimination of synthetic insecticides, the reduction of biological insecticides and the monitoring of useful organisms.
We are now moving to Lombardy, because Coldiretti estimates a 15% drop in the wine grape harvest in the region. This is the data released by the Organization on the first day of the harvest, which, compared to 2020, starts with a week delay for climatic reasons. The first bunch has been detached in Franciacorta, in the next few days the operations will also go live in the Oltrepò Pavese, while the last to leave will be the winemakers of Valtellina.
We close with a new trend that will be talked about: alcohol-free wines. The latest addition is “Steinbock Alcol Free Sparkling”, an alcohol-free Riesling-based sparkling wine from Moselle, produced by the famous Hofstätter winery. “It is a dealcoholated wine that comes from a special technique to keep the delicate aromas of the raw material intact, in this case my beloved Riesling that prompted me to acquire the Dr. Fischer company in Moselle. An extraordinary variety that manages to express itself nobly even in an “alcohol free” version, writes Martin Foradori Hofstätter himself.
That’s all for today, see you next time!
