Abstract
The wine supply chain represents a sizeable share of the Italian agro-food economy, especially as regards exports, and viticulture still characterizes Italian rural landscapes. The operators involved in the various phases differ in number, size, and production functions (grape-growing, crushing, bottling, shipping). Small- and medium-sized family wine farms coexist with cooperatives and big industrial producers, but overall the sector is highly fragmented. The degree of concentration of the industry is low, notwithstanding the role of some big firms (especially cooperatives and industrial companies) that operate in different segments of the domestic and foreign markets. In the domestic market, the distribution is dominated by large-scale retail channels (especially for less expensive wines), followed at a distance by small retail and direct sales. Marketing strategies and segments are quite different among individual firms, both in Italy and abroad. The majority of wines have a designation (PDO, PGI), and the share of generic wines is decreasing. Appellations are more important than brands for Italian consumers, while abroad brands can be important references, especially for super-premium and icon wines.
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Notes
- 1.
The most important varieties (over 10,000 ha) are Sangiovese, Trebbiano, Montepulciano, Merlot, Catarratto Bianco, Barbera, Glera, Moscato Bianco, Pinot Grigio, Calabrese (Nero d’Avola), different types of Lambrusco, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Primitivo, and Negro Amaro.
- 2.
These figures concerning the professional grape growers come from the AGEA database. AGEA is the Italian agency in charge of the payments of CAP subsidies. According to Reg. 1308/2013, all professional wine grape farmers and all wine-makers have to submit each year a compulsory statement on the quantity of grapes or wines that they produce.
- 3.
According to Reg. (CE) 1308/2013 and Reg. (CE) 607/2009, EU wines can be marketed as:
-
Varietal wines and generic wines, produced with no special restriction on where vineyards, wine-making, and bottling plants are located (in Italy the maximum yield is 50 t/ha). The name of the wine grape variety may be mentioned if at least 85% of the product has been made from that variety.
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Wines with a recognized geographical origin, according to the categories Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) and Protected Designation of Origin (PDO). A geographical indication and a designation of origin are names of a region, a specific place, or, in exceptional and duly justifiable cases, a country, used to describe a wine whose quality depends (strictly in PDO case) on the delimited area corresponding to the name, where grapes are cropped and processed according to a recognized set of rules (product specification). In PDO wine production, only varieties belonging to Vitis vinifera are admitted, and all grapes must be cropped in the delimited area; in PGI production, also crosses between Vitis vinifera and other species of the genus Vitis are admitted, and at least 85% of grapes must be cropped in the delimited area.
In Italy PGI wines are presented as IGTs, because “Indicazione Geografica Tipica” is the officially recognized traditional term corresponding to the EU category PGI, and PDO wines are presented as DOC and DOCG wines, because Denominazione di Origine Controllata (Controlled Designation of Origin) and Denominazione d’Origine Controllata e Garantita (Controlled and Guaranteed Designation of Origin) are the officially recognized traditional terms corresponding to the EU category PDO (L. 238/2016). Wines belonging to the DOC and DOCG categories are assumed to be of higher value than IGT wines. Those DOC wines which have achieved particular appreciation by the market can be designated, on the producers’ request, as DOCG; in this case producers are obliged to comply with much more stringent production rules concerning not only the grape varieties and the maximum yields in vineyards and wine-making but also the grape selection and the aging. DOC and DOCG wines undergo strict chemical and organoleptic tests at the end of aging and (only for DOCG wines) before bottling; the bottlingarea can be inside or outside the originarea (depending on the production specification—“Disciplinare di produzione” in Italian).
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- 4.
Estimates on bulk wine at the winery level.
- 5.
The term “technical unit” denotes a single production plant. Several technical units engaged in grape processing may be under the control of the same company.
- 6.
The data presented here are based on AGEA data, which differ, in absolute terms, from the ISTAT data (see Table 3.2) because the production volumes declared to AGEA every year may, for some types of wine and for limited quantities, refer to the previous harvest. Nevertheless, we used them because they are the only data available to estimate the grape flows to the various wine-making operators.
- 7.
Usually grape or bulk wine destined to low price labels.
- 8.
The latest case (2016) is the transfer of the prestigious Biondi Santi winery in Montalcino to the EPI Group (Champagne Piper-Heidsieck).
- 9.
In 2016 the value of the Italian sparkling wines destined for export was 1.2 billion (ISMEA 2018).
- 10.
Unpublished information from UIV Wine Market Observatory.
- 11.
The term “on-trade” means sold for consumption in hotels, pubs, restaurants, and cafes, whereas “off-trade” means sold in supermarkets, stores, food retailers, corner shops, and so on.
- 12.
It is also customary for farms and cooperatives to deliver bulk wine to consumers’ homes.
- 13.
This estimate does not consider the flows of grapes produced by other farmers to farmers making wine; moreover, grapes possibly sold to cooperatives and industrial wineries by farmers making wine, when exceeding their processing capacity, are aggregated to the grapes sold by “other farmers”.
- 14.
EU: Reg. 1308/2013, art. 157, 158, 167; Italy: L. 238/2016, art. 41.
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Corsi, A., Mazzarino, S., Pomarici, E. (2019). The Italian Wine Industry. In: Alonso Ugaglia, A., Cardebat, JM., Corsi, A. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Wine Industry Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98633-3_3
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