Italian rosé wine takes off to the rescue and wants to conquer the place it deserves, in terms of history and quality, in the Italian wine scene without being more intimidated than white or red wines. For this reason the six most significant production districts of Northern, Central and Southern Italy have decided to create a network to jointly promote 'pink' wines, giving life to Rosautoctono, Institute of Italian Autochthonous Pink Wine, a team that brings together the Consortia for the protection of the most representative denominations of origin in the sector (Bardolino Chiaretto, Valtènesi Chiaretto, Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo, Castel del Monte Rosato and Bombino Nero, Salice Salentino Rosato and Cirò Rosato). The declared objective is to give a decisive boost, not only from a promotional point of view, but also from an economic and cultural point of view, to the most significant territories suited to the production of this type of wine.
The premises are all there. In recent times, Italian rosé wines (be careful from today the rosé denomination is banned and also the more Italian one of rosé, it's called pink wine and that's it!) they have attracted the attention of the general public for their quality, conquering 6 percent of the Italian market. Too little - underline the managers of Rosautoctono - because there is space to expand further but a unity of purpose is needed. In France, where they know a lot about wine, rosés have long held 30 percent of the market. But the goal is also to expand the consumption of Made in Italy wine abroad which it absorbs today 24 million hectoliters a year.
It is therefore a matter of attesting to a culture of drinking in a pink version, and the first step is institutional recognition. Franco Cristoforetti (president of the Consortium for the protection of Chiaretto and Bardolino), Alessandro Luzzago (Consorzio Valtènesi), Francesco Liantonio (Consortium for the Protection of Castel del Monte DOC Wines), Valentino Di Campli (Consortium for the Protection of Abruzzo ), Damiano Reale (Consortium for the protection of Salice Salentino DOC wines) and Raffaele Librandi (Consortium of Cirò and Melissa wines) who set up, before a notary, the Rosautoctono Institute at whose head Cristoforetti was elected.
Words of praise for the initiative came from Luciano Nieto, Chief Technical Secretariat Minister (Mipaaft), who declared: “building a system in Italy is very difficult and when you decide to do it, we can only congratulate you for the effort. So best wishes for the fruitful work of the newborn Institute, which I am sure will lead to important results".
“We wanted to use the new definition of pink wine – explains the president Cristoforetti – because it is the one that sums up the different identities of the territories of the Garda Chiaretto, the Abruzzo Cerasuolo and the Apulian and Calabrian Rosato, all based on native vines. Just as there are red wines and white wines, we would like to underline that in Italy there are rosé wines, which, among other things, have nothing to envy in terms of tradition and quality of the French rosés, today dominant on world markets, where 24 million hectoliters of rosé wine are drunk, but where Italy must and can achieve more important positions. In order to compete internationally, however, we understood that it was not enough to have a two-thousand-year history and to have reached very high quality levels. There is need a common strategy, ttransversal to the whole country, and for this reason we have decided to found an Institute that represents a historic goal, because its primary aim is to promote a unitary and strengthened promotion, inside and outside the national borders, offering the sector a decisive boost".
Various targeted actions will support this union of intents, ranging from communication initiatives to information campaigns, from collaborations with sector publications and guides to participation in fairs and events, from research to training activities, up to the establishment of a permanent Observatory. The latter is an objective which will provide a complete and accurate picture of the sector, also thanks to the support of Valoritalia, a leading company in the control of DOCG, DOC and IGT wines, and Federdoc, the National Confederation of voluntary consortia for the protection of denominations of Italian wines. The think tank on pink wine has therefore started and the new Institute is already preparing to land at Vinitaly, in Verona, from 7 to 10 April.
