Wine News - August 05, 2006 |
Welcome to
VOLUME IV,
NUMBER 8 of Wine News, the e-Letter from the WineCountry.IT network. (Would you
rather see the e-Letter on your favorite browser? Use
this link. Usa il link seguente se vuoi leggere
le News in italiano).
To cool you down from this August's scorching heat which has swept over most of the US and Europe, WineCountry.IT brings you a series of refreshing articles, such as the seven episodes of the 12 parts articles about the best 10 wine movies of all time.
Other articles bring good news to Italian wine producers, who should be feel a refreshing breeze reading them. I'm thinking about the projections of ISMEA and UIV for the next harvest, the record breaking increase of Italian wine imports in China and Brazil, as well as the good performance of Italian Müller Thurgau and Pinot Grigio at the respectively international competitions.
Another refreshing piece of information is the final results concerning the value of the 2005 Italian wine market: a business worth €9 billion, 2,8 of which from exports.
There is also an interesting article about Australian research, aiming at building a 'cybernose' which could detect the minimal presence of any substance in wine. Other comforting news in these troubled times is that the younger Italian drinkers are favoring responsible drinking and wine tasting.
Given the record breaking heat of this summer most people are drinking a whole lot of water. In the evening though, when I sit down at dinner, a good, chilled Prosecco or a refreshingly cold Vermentino makes my food so much more appetizing.
That's it for this issue. Enjoy it, don't spend too much time in the sun and drink responsibly.
Loris Scagliarini,
President |
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Articles
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Italian Winemakers Against EU Cuts' Proposals |
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 Italian wine chefs and producers, meeting for the first time in Rome, came out strongly against European Union proposals to reform the wine sector, Italian News Agency ANSA reported Thursday( July 20, 2006).
The proposals "are unacceptable and could do Italy great harm," said the Confederation of Italian Agriculture (CIA), echoing other farm associations.
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Italy 2006: ISMEA and UIV Foresee an Abundant and High Quality Harvest |
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 ISMEA (Istituto di Servizi per il Mercato Agricolo e Alimentare, or Service Institute for the Agriculture and Food Markets) and UIV (Unione Italiana Vini, or Italian Wine Union) foresee 6% volume increase over the previous year. The quality, too, is expected to be superior, as the dry weather conditions have reduced the danger for vine pathologies.
The two organizations expect the 2006 harvest to produce up to 53 million hectoliters (around 1,400 million gallons) of wine, or a 6% increase compared to the 50.6 million hectoliters (around 1,336 million gallons)s produced in 2005. Such a result will bring up production to the 2004 harvest level.
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Italian Wine to the Conquest of China |
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 Rice is a whole different thing when paired with a good glass of Italian wine.
That must be what's in the minds of the Chinese consumers, as the Italian wine imports into the country rose by 96.9% in the first 4 months of 2006.
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'Cybernose' for Detecting Wine Aromas |
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 A group of Australian scientists are studying the olfactory receptors of insect antennae while trying to develop a 'cybernose' able to detect aromas even in the smallest concentrations. Insects have the most sophisticated odor perception in the whole animal kingdom. In fact, some wasps are able to detect scents at concentrations of just one part per trillion.
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| Drink Less and Better, Thanks in Part to the AIS |
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 The fact that 40% of the over 30,000 AIS (Associazione Italiana Sommeliers, or Italian Association of Sommeliers) are young adults, suggests that the culture of wine and responsible drinking is spreading among the younger generation of Italians.
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| Top 10 Wine Movies – Part 1 of 12 |
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 Unlike whiskey, which has been a crucial prop for the tough and the heartbroken since the invention of cinema, wine and movies have rarely been a great pairing.
Perhaps it's because most Americans didn't appreciate wine until recently. Perhaps it's because wine is more complex than whiskey, and Hollywood is all about simplicity. |
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| Part 2 of 12 |
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 Rivers of fine Champagne flow in this short list candidate for the best American film ever, and even better, nobody pays the tab.
This film established Bogart -- previously best known for playing gangsters and tough guys -- as a romantic lead, catapulting him to the superstardom that still lingers today. |
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| Part 3 of 12 |
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 James Bond has always been a sophisticated and wide-ranging drinker, with much more of a taste for Champagne -- particularly in Ian Fleming's novels -- than the vodka martinis he's now most famous for.
However, nowadays everything Bond drinks is a product placement. Bollinger Champagne, Finlandia vodka and Heineken beer are changing Bond's character. |
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| Part 4 of 12 |
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 Ryan: "A bold wine with a hint of sophistication and lacking in pretension. (Pause.) Actually I was just talking about myself."
Kline: "You are not wrong. Wine is like people. The wine takes all the influences in life all around it, it absorbs them and it gets its personality." |
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| Part 5 of 12 |
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 If this film were released today, instead of earning nine Oscars including Best Picture, it would be seen as child sexploitation.
"You have to fully enjoy the aroma," her haughty aunt says. "On your first sip, hold it on the roof of your mouth for a moment and breathe through your nose. Then you will feel the flavor. ... A bad year will be sharp. A good year, which this is of course, will waft." |
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| Part 6 of 12 |
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 Filmed in what is now Francis Ford Coppola's house in Rutherford, this made-for-TV movie puts a pretty good twist on biodynamic farming.
The van Bohlen family owns a winery so important that their town near St. Helena is named after them. The family is completely controlled by Swanson, a silent-film diva in her next-to-last film part. |
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| Part 7 of 12 |
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 Out to dinner with Miss Piggy, Kermit the Frog orders a bottle of bubbly, which turns out to be sparkling Muscatel from Idaho that Martin "uncorks" with a beer opener. Kermit is about to sip some when Miss Piggy reminds him that the expert is supposed to taste it first. Martin takes a sip, spits it out in a rush, grimaces, then composes his face into a smarmy smile and says, "An excellent choice." I feel like I've ordered wine from that sommelier.
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Quaglietti Nominated 'Opes Gusto' President |
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 Pier Francesco Quaglietti, a journalist from Todi, in the Italian region of Umbria, expert in gastronomy and tourism, and previously press officer for important Italian fairs and public events, has been nominated national president of 'Opes Gusto'. The association is recognized by the CONI (Comitato Olimpico Nazionale Italiano, or Italian National Olympic Committee) and operates in the field of sports education.
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Third International Müller Thurgau Competition |
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 The third International Müller Thurgau Competition took place on June 21st, 2006 in Val di Cembra, under the supervision of the Centro Studi Assaggiatori (Taster Study Center). The contest enjoyed the support of the International Academy of Sensory Analysis, as well as the patronage of the OIV (International Organization of Vine and Wine), which endorses only 15 wine competitions worldwide.
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Second International Pinot Grigio Competition |
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 The second 'International Pinot Grigio Competition' took place in Valdadige on June 20, 2006, organized by the council of Brentino Belluno, in the Italian province of Verona, under under the supervision of Centro Studi Assaggiatori (Taster Study Center), and with the patronage of the OIV (International Organization of Vine and Wine).
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Vital Fire – Art, Wine and Volcanoes |
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 The wine seen as artwork, as the inspirational muse of contemporary artists, as a vital fire. Art as eternal expression of the human soul, as an 'other' language. And Mt. Vesuvius, the volcanic mountain near Naples, its fire and energy. Here, from this place and these concepts arise the Fuoco Vitale, or Vital Fire project. This project overlaps wine and art and vice versa within an evocative physical space, the MAV, or the new, innovative Museo Archeologico Virtuale (Virtual Archeological Museum) in Ercolano.
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Vittorio Sgarbi Toasts with Cesarini Sforza Spumante |
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 A few days ago, at the 'Vinicio' restaurant, in the outskirt of Modena, famed Italian art critic Vittorio Sgarbi introduced the book 'La chiave bianca' ('The White Key'), by author Erica Stori, to a wide audience. The celebration was highlighted with toasts made with the noble bubbles of the Cesarini Sforza spumante (sparkling) wine.
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Italian Wine Export to Brazil Up 49% |
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 Italian wine exports to Brazil increased a solid 49% in volume in the first four months of 2006.
Compared to the same period in 2005, Italian wine exports increased from 1.235 million liters (around 326,252 gallons) to 1.846 million liters (around 487,662 gallons). The data were reported by the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
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WineCountry.IT
Columns
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Italian Native Vines
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Tuscany is a world famous wine region, whose historic links to the cultivation and development of vitiviniculture can be traced back to Etruscan and Roman times. Currently, the region is at the forefront among the wine production zones which act as international ambassador for the wines made in Italy.
With the alternating of hills, valleys and Mediterranean coastline, the regional landscape appears to be made to order for vine growing. Additionally, there's the large number of vine types grown in the region, where the native varieties have achieved excellent results, and the international vines have produced successful wines on the world market.
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August 2006 Company of the Month takes us to the heel of the Italian boot, in Manduria, the heart of the Primitivo native vines in the Apulia region. Here the Cantina CantOlio, whose full name is Cantina ed Oleificio Sociale di Manduria, has its headquarters. The cooperative was founded in the early 1960s by a small group of local peasants.
The Cantina CantOlio was established to produce wine from small Primitivo vineyards owned and cultivated by the founding members in an area known as the "Marina". The soil composition and the micro-climate of the small parcels of land were particularly favorable to the production of high quality grapes.
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In 2005 the production of Italian wine reached 53 million hectoliters (about 1,400 million gallons), with total sales of €9 billion, including €2.8 billion in exports (
The first literary competition entitled 'IN VINO VERITAS: una sana ebbrezza letteraria', or 'TRUTH IN WINE: A Healthy Literary Buzz', takes place in connection with the fourth annual 'Nick La Rocca European Jazz Festival'.
There is not a geometrical layout to these vineyards, but rather the crossing of curving lines of vines, which faithfully follow the profile of the hills and lead the eye beyond the horizon, reaching further than the emotion which takes the breath away.
