By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

During the past few years the high end wine market has increased. It has gone from 77 billion euro in 1995 to 253 billion euro in 2015 (study by Bain & Company in 2016). At the same time, the index of WS auctions showed an increase of 300% in value.

This sort of increase is worthy of the best bonds on stock exchanges and an evident preference of the richer consumers for finer wines.

Luxury Wine Marketing by Liz Thach and Peter Yeung

<<The luxury wine category contains all that is rare and with beautiful aesthetics >> explained Liz Thach, Master of Wine and professor at the Wine Business Institute di Sonoma, to Wine Searcher <<it supplies a sense of privilege and elegance>> in other words those who can buy exclusive  and expensive bottles feels privileged and this is something that become quite irresistible.

The book Luxury Wine Marketing by Liz Thach and Peter Yeung studies in fact the desirability of a luxury wine and the elements that make it stand out. In fact, while the market proposes a growing number of extremely expensive bottles, the estate information is quite scarce.   This report starts from a database of 8500 wines with a price over $ 100 per bottle, divided per grape variety, region, type and price, and considering the vintages from 2010 to 2016.…

L'articolo Luxury wines: more and more success stories sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

The Sommelier stereotipe

Which is the sommelier stereotype?  Probably a man dressed in a dark blue suit that comes up to your table in a restaurant to explain the wine list and help in the choice of a bottle.  Finally he then will serve the wine in a sort of ritual made up of glasses to be rinsed, decanter, the uncorking of the bottle and sometimes the sharing of some of his knowledge <<I visited this winery five years ago and I saw the centuries old barrels where they age this Reisling d’Alsace …. >>. These things will remain forever but are no longer enough.

Taking a step back thanks to the very interesting article by Kathleen Willcox published in Wine Searcher lets continue along the route that made sommeliers from transporters of wine using pack animals to those who possess now a legally recognized title: Union des Sommeliers founded in 1907 in France, Associazione Italiana Sommelier created in Italy in 1965, in the UK in 1969 the Wine & Spirit Education Trust begins its courses and in 1977 the Cout of Master Sommeliers (CMS) is born. The latter  represents the highest level in qualifications for  Sommeliers and reunites 273 members.

Sommeliers managers of restaurants

While there is an  increase in number and in quality of the sommeliers, International restaurants have seen a crisis regarding starred chefs who are closing their activities and, the arrival of a new figure, one that unites the managers competences and those of a sommelier.…

L'articolo Revolutionary millennial sommeliers sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini, Montalcino, Brunello, Casato Prime Donne

<<An experiment that maybe will last more than life on earth>>commented  W. Blake Gray while talking to Wine searcher about the study going on in the major US agriculture university, the awesome UC Davis from where the majority of great American winemakers come out from.

To carry our an experiment that lasts 100 years is in fact something very difficult to understand in our society based on rapidity and now. It actually quite reminds one of the empiricism of the 18 hundreds, but that might be why it is well suited to a type of closure, that in the XVIII century, was perfected: the closure for glass wine bottles .The experiment starts from a mystery: why the oxygen that penetrates through the cork, one milligram per year, does not oxidize the wine?

We might think that it is the sulphur dioxide that gets inserted in the bottle (generally 20-25 milligrams per litre) that protects the wine, but it is in fact the oxygen that uses it up during 5-6 years, and so 10 years and more later there is nothing left to defend the nectar, as explained by professor Andy Waterhouse author of this intrepid research project regarding cork closures and wine oxidation.…

L'articolo Corks and wine oxidation sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.