January 15, 2009
The 2009 Forecast by Andrea Sartori, President of the Italian Wine Union

Italian Wine News
January 15th

“2009 begins in the midst of a crisis, but if Italian winemaking companies know how to act with rationality, they will not miss success." -The Forecast by Andrea Sartori, President of the Italian Wine Union (UIV)

2009 has arrived in the midst of a global financial crisis with consumption levels that continue to decrease. A situation in which it is difficult to find a winning recipe, but, at the same time, that must be confronted without useless emotionality.

“2009 will certainly be an exacting and difficult year,” affirmed Andrea Sartori, President of the Italian Wine Union, one of the most important organizational-entrepreneurial groups in the wine world, “however, I am convinced that if our enterprises know how to approach this scenario, that if they go with great rationality, the results will not be lacking, even in terms of success”.

Analyzing, instead, the year that has just ended, 2008 suffered from a scenario of overall uncertainty, particularly in the last couple of months."In Italy, the consumption of wine slowed, a bit because of the economic straits, a bit because of a certain confusion about policies geared toward conscious consumption,” Sartori explained. “On the export front we have seen our quotas diminish in volume, but increase in value and this, in my opinion, is to be interpreted as a demonstration of the fact that we have been able to sell our product better.”

2008 was also the year of the new CMO wine reform, which may have, “possible criticism over the mid and long-term, but at the same time the reform can offer opportunities for the entire sector. It will finally be possible to rationalize the system of denominations and, if we are able, we will know how to successfully seize an opportunity to render our sector more efficient."

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