Toast to Italian Wine

The LCBO shelves flourish with a love of Italy brands

A toast to Italian wine, the traditional kind, that is red and reassuring. It's climbing up the ranking of Ontario's preferred beverages, competing with the best French products. Therefore, let's raise our glasses to the success of Italian products. Since 1997 - an exceptional vintage - Italian wines are on an upward trend. Sales in Ontario have been growing by nine percent so far this year. Ontario gourmets are increasingly appreciative of Italian bottles, and they are ready to fork out as much as $200 for a super-premium (they sell like hot cakes and have become collector's items). Of course, ordinary people more often choose bottles costing around $15 and with good cost / quality ratio. This is confirmed by LCBO Chair and CEO Andrew Brandt, himself a lover of Italy and its grapes. "Having visited the sunbathed vineyards of Siena's Enoteca Pasquale Delina, Tuscany's Biondi Santi e Barbi Estates, Sardinia's Sella and Mosca vineyards, Sicily's Pellegrino, Calabria's Lento, I've seen first hand the care they use in producing their wines. It is not by chance that the only European wines whose sales are increasing come from Italy. All the rest are either losing ground or at best keeping their positions."
This success was favoured by the diffusion of the Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC) - Name of Origin Controlled - and Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) - Name of Origin Controlled and Guaranteed - marks, that enhances the reputation of the products. It also ensures that no gimmicks are attempted halfway from producers to consumers. Mind you, Italian wines are still in third place, with a yearly turnover of $160 million in Ontario, lagging behind the French ($190 million) and the local products of Ontario ($200 million). "Wine sales in general are on the rise," continues Brandt, "the pleasure of drinking wine is spreading; tastes are becoming more sophisticated and people have a growing appreciation for red wines. That's the reason why Italians are doing so well as their black grapes are excellent and the price/quality ratio, especially with imports from Southern Italy, is exceptional."
Clearly, an Italian will probably find the Chianti or Merlot on sale here quite expensive. However, comparisons should not be made with supermarkets in Rome or Palermo, but on an international scale and considering restaurant menus. Canada's distribution system, in fact, is very different from Italy's. In Ontario, Italian wines can only be bought at Liquor Control Board of Ontario stores or their counterparts in other Provinces. That means LCBO, as a large-scale buyer, can obtain low, wholesale prices. "Our purchasing power is much higher than any importer, which explains why we have the best prices on Italian, but also French or German, wines," observes Brandt. "Recently, the Globe & Mail compared our price lists with those available in New York. We came out as more affordable in every one of the 42 categories considered. Should this trend continue, the quality of the products will rise and in two to three years Italian wines could outsell French ones."
Red wines are gaining the upper hand on the tables, for Italians as well as other Canadians. "In general, our sales grow by six or seven percent a year," remarks Brandt, "and not to the detriment of beer. Wine drinkers are more sophisticated and have completely different tastes. This increase is mostly due to the reds. This is another reason for the popularity of Italian wines where in other nations, such as Germany or Austria, the best wines are the whites."
Of course, there is competition by the so-called New World Wines, i.e. the wines of Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Chile, etc. However, even Australia is a distant fourth, but gaining ground.
"The demand for Italian wines is extremely high," says Brandt, "even for bottles priced at $200 or more such as Gaja, Sassicaia, Solaia, Quintarelli etc., which compete with the best Bordeaux and sell like hot cakes. They truly are collector's items. We could sell three or four times as many, but we receive a fixed amount, set by the producers themselves."
The elite market of the super premiums (the most sought-after are those from 1997) propels the other segments. Also the premiums are highly appreciated, with sophisticated reds like Brunello di Montalcino, Barolo delle Langhe, Chianti classico riserva. The general public usually prefers Merlot, Valpolicella, or Chianti. The whites are more affordable; Trebbiano can cost as little as $6.50. Higher quality is found with Pinot, Verdicchio, or Soave. The choice is really wide. Some 200 Italian wines can be regularly found in LCBO stores, with many more available at different times through Vintages - LCBO's premium products division. Every year new opportunities arise because the LCBO sends its buyers all over Europe, doing what could be seen as the most pleasant job in the world: touring cellars and vineyards, sipping the nectar of Bacchus, assessing new varieties, verifying the quality of the latest vintage and discovering young winemakers.

Publication Date: 2003-04-06
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=2575