Champagne in Italy: the poetry of the terroir<

"Italy is a special market for champagne.Italians are informed consumers, with a pronounced taste for local products and a predilection for brands.They drink Barolo, Brunello, Sassicaia.Not Pinots or Chardonnays.For them, champagne is synonymous with territory, quality and celebration"": the" bollicine""(bubbles in Italian) have no secrets for Chiara Giovoni, sommelier and writer specializing in the vineyard.Last September, this 34 -year -old Milanese, lively and playful, was elected by a jury of Italian champagne Italian ambassador professionals 2012.With 7.6 million bottles sold in 2011 and 470 brands present, Italy is an important market for champagne wines, the sixth for export.The vintages represent 7 % of sales, rosés 6 % and special cuvées 5 %.The big brands cut the lion's share, with 86 % of the market, ahead of the winegrowers, 9 %, and the cooperatives, 5 %."Champagne is a myth in this country, synonymous with good dear and an unparalleled art of living in Europe, if not in France.As proof, the success of vintages and prestigious cuvées.Despite the crisis, the market holds good.He had experienced 7 % growth in 2011, fifth in the world after the United States, Belgium and Germany, and Japan,""explains Jean-Luc Barbier, director general of the Champagne committee whose headquartersEst à Épernay.

A flattering result on the land of Italian sparkling, the traditional spummer and the light and sparkling prosecco, a market of 23 million bottles per year."Champagne is the absolute reference", recognizes Matteo Bruno Lunelli, president of the Ferrari house, who has produced Spumante""Champenoise method" since 1902, an undisputed high -end leader."Italians know the diversity of champagne wines well," he adds, refusing to consider them as competitors."There is room for all on our market," says this thirty oenologist who studied agronomy in Montpellier, completed them with champagne internships, before returning to the Trentino where he improved theChardonnay and Pinot Noir grape varieties.He recognizes Champagne a""very innovative marketing"."We have drawn the lessons ourselves.It stimulated us,""he said.This is how Ferrari has teamed up with Couturier Prada in his demonstrations in New York and with the Lainier Zegna group in the parades of Haute Couture male in Beijing.

Champagne is not outdone.At the initiative of the Champagne Wine Committee, which opened an antenna in Milan in May 1976, a champagne day took place in Rome on October 2, in the monumental complex Santo Spirito in Sassia, a stone's throw from the Vatican Vatican.The largest tasting of champagne in Italy, the second in the world after that of London.Sixty-seven brands were present, with 190 cuvées, each brand offering a brut without year, a vintage and a rosé.More than 600 importers, distributors, wine merchants, sommeliers have taken part."I sent my sommelier there.It was very profitable,""said French Anthony Genovese, chef of Pagliaccio, two -star restaurant in Rome.In front of each counter, potential customers and connoisseurs line up, chatting with the representatives of the houses and savoring each vintage, distributed in the dropper.The Salon Comptoir and its sister brand, Delamotte, was stormed.As proof that celebrity is not only a matter of volumes sold."Our wines (White White, Chardonnay) are aimed at a demanding and refined clientele.In Italy, we do not sell more than 2,000 bottles per year, in highly sought -after places like Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence,""said Giocolino Gillardi, importer of the living room in the peninsula.

Success also of the great classics.For Stefano Balduzzi, who distributes Laurent-Perrier,""the public knows our brand and is faithful to him".No comparison possible with an Italian sparkler:""Consumers can make the difference."Laurent Perrier is distributed in Esselunga supermarkets and organizes 100 to 150 tastings per year with professionals to make themselves known.Same strategy of widow Clicquot, which multiplies the sessions with wine merchants and restaurateurs, at the rate of thirty potential customers at the same time.With her orange dress, the firm has no problem to be recognized."On the Italian market, it has an assertive imprint, synonymous with the best quality," explains Michela Cimatoribus, responsible for her promotion.The brand sponsors high -end sporting events: Rome tennis internationals, female golf course, Porto Cervo regattas.It even broadcasts a special cuvée on the Italian market, with a destination exclusive of restaurateurs, the Saint Petersburg cuvée.In the North, the rosé prevails.In the South Center, this is the half-second.

For Roederer, Italy is the first market in Europe, with 250,000 bottles in 2011.Its high -end, the crystal cuvée, is all the rage.It was the favorite champagne of Comtesse Francesca Agusta, heiress of the eponymous group of helicopters, who killed himself in 2001 in a mysterious fall of her Portofino terrace, the chic station of the Côte Ligure, a cup in hand.This year, the crisis affected its 30 % sales volume:""We are all at the same point," admits its importer.The house refuses to be distributed in supermarkets and reserves for restaurants and oenothies.Tasting days, courses in hotel schools - where 6,000 students are initiated each year -, weeks of training open to professionals, innovative sponsorship with brand gadgets, award -winning competitions: nothing is left out to promote champagne inItaly."There is no possible comparison with Italian sparkling.Everyone has its specific qualities which are due to the typicity of their terroirs and which are not reproducible,""said the Champagne wine committee.The writer Mario Soldati expresses the same concept when he writes:""A wine is the poetry of his terroir.""