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New trend: wine, women, shoes and charity

Seductive and surprising is the new women’s wine world: wines in a bag, associations of young thirsty girls, offers of personal shoppers and lots more

Vernissage design, wine in a bag

Read for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

In the USA 64% of wine consumers are women and 80% of the wine sold in a supermarket is bought by ladies. So why do wine producers continue thinking of their products as if they were for men? As women’s average income is rising, and traditionally they have earned less than men, but e now their pay is rising more rapidly than men’s and soon they will equal salaries and this will increase women’s spending ability and contractual power in the home and at work.
So here we have a new type of female protagonism in wine which is rising in a surprising way.
So here for you are the new trends in a very interesting OICCE article. The first case is the most intriguing. “Vernissage” the wine in elegant and revolutionary designer containers. Practically a pun explained with the term “bag in bag” so little bags that contain Cabernet, Chardonnay, and rosé from France and are proposed by the Swedish importer Oenoforos.
Again very interesting packaging from Lambrini who bottle in Liverpool fermented beverages with low alcohol content with the catchphrase “Lambrini girls just wanna have fun”. A promotion regarding 500.000 1,5 lt bottles has been launched with a mascara included. Just before that another promotion regarded access to a competition where the prize was “what money cannot buy” a voucher worth 2.000 pounds to be spent with an exceptional personal shopper Patrick Swan the celebrity stylist.

Do you like biological wine or not?

In Italy biological wine enters 2 % of homes but in the US things are better and 34% of wine lovers prefer environmentally friendly bottles

biological or organic wine

In other words the larger market for biological bottles is abroad and most of all in distant nations, while here in Italy it is still a niche product. Not a very favourable circumstance for the small estates which actually constitute the larger slice of Italian biological farms. The photograph of this sector arrives from both WineMonitor and WineNews at the same time, and there are some real surprises. Italy has 57.000 hectares of vineyard for biological cultivations, a surface which has more than doubled with respect to 8 years ago and equivalent to 6,5% of the total national vineyard. With the new European rulings, which we have waited 21 years to get, it is now possible to obtain the biological certification of the wineries and consequently to produce wine as well as grapes that are bio. Finally it will be an end, hopefully, of the imaginative names that are “bio sounding” such as natural pure wine, and other wines without rules regarding production.

Future trends in wine: bloggers, women, young people and biological cultivation

The use of printed paper, guide books included, will decrease because of the web. Organic wines will sell well, as will those that are excellent and those that are fun.

Violante, Donatella's daughter with a chef in Alberta, Canada

Never have there been so many changes in such a short time. Let’s expect a massive increase in sales in wines that respect the environment. The forecast by the Wine Institute divulged by WineNews reveals that the USA wine lovers prefer wines that are environmentally friendly in 34% of cases, a percentage which can also increase if the interviewee is a restaurateur or wine shop owner. Gabriele Micozzi, Marketing professor at Luiss and at the Università Politecnica in the Marche (still form WineNews), confirms these trends on markets where there will be a major expansion in the future: China, Russia and Brazil. Evidently there are some distinctions to be made, in China red wines that are very “sweet”, in Russia the more alcoholic and structured whites, while in Brazil the more refined “fun beverages”. However everywhere the biological –organic segment will sell very well.

Do the Italian restaurants’ stars shine no longer?

Decreasing sales and bottles bought in 61% of the restaurants with stars in the first semester of 2012. JFC does a scan of the Italian restaurants that count

Extra virgin olive oil dinner at Vissani's restaurant

The restaurants awarded by the Michelin, Espresso and Gambero Rosso guide books are a very important sector of the appeal that our nation has to offer for guests coming from abroad. Massimo Feruzzi owner of JFT, one of the most important centre for study and consultancy for tourism, makes us notice that <<17.220 employees with profiles and competences of very high level are guaranteed a job>>. In other word it really is the icing on the cake of what is on offer on the national wine and food front.

But, in the starred restaurants all is not going well! 61,6% of these have seen a decrease in the income of the first semester in 2012 A decrease of 19,1% of the income comes from serving beverages or rather wine ( 64,7%) and banquets. Activities such as this seem however to be concentrated in a few societies which are better structured which have seen an increase in business volume.
For the owners of starred restaurants the major problems are financial and the impossibility to make investments. Less critical is the administration of the personnel and of the excellent goods, while the increase in bureaucracy is an impediment as is the lack of occasional personnel.
A qualified restaurant ha san average of 7 full time employees among which the majority are Italian. It is this super qualified staff who is the supporting structure of the luxury catering but we see that here too there are some problems.

The black rooster becomes fashionable

It all began with a discussion as to “where shall I put the rooster” and the nit finished with a smart and fashionable image for the new Chianti Classico

Chianti Classico gadgets on Sara and Diletta

Sergio Zingarelli Presidente of the Consorzio presented the members of the Accademia Italiana della Cucina and of the Union Européenne des Gourmets, the “Chianti Classico Revolution” they restyling of the wine appellation from central Tuscany. He told us how it all began with a dispute over where the symbol of the black rooster above the bottles finished with a complete restyling of the image and appellation. In the end, the famous rooster, now with more feathers and an open beak, will be more visible. But that is not the end of the novelties: at the top of the Chianti Classico production pyramid arrives the “Gran Selezione” reserved to the best wines produced on the estates or rather those obtained from the vines of those who bottle them. Then there is the creation of the Chianti Classico Academy with courses for wine lovers lasting half a day or a whole day which include the ABC of the appellation and its tasting.