As a chartered ferry pulls up to Gorgona, an island off the Ligurian coast of Italy, the landscape showcases exactly what travelers might expect from the region: blue-black rocky outcrops on the shore, crystal-clear water below, and beautiful, rolling green hills with a glimpse of thriving vineyards visible from the right angle. And though the scen...

You say Piedmont and you think of a red wine, you say Alto Adige and you think of a white. When it comes to quality PDO wines, the association is often immediate. The Observatory on the competitiveness of Wine Regions, in collaboration with Nomisma Wine Monitor and UniCredit, focused on this specific theme in its 2024 edition, capturing both the pe...

This month I am going to tell you about the 2019 Falesco Tenuta Vitiano Rosso under Famiglia Cotarella. Falesco began 3 generations ago in the 60’s with Antonio and Domenico Cotarella whom wanted to start a winery and make their own wine. In 1979 the Falesco brand was born under brothers Renzo and Riccardo Cotarella. You may have heard me speak abo...

In the last two decades, Italian wine exports have surged nearly threefold (+188%), penetrating markets across 140 foreign countries. This growth has propelled wines to the forefront of Italy’s global agri-food exports, a revelation unearthed by Coldiretti, the Italian farmers’ association, through an in-depth analysis of Istat data unveiled at the...

It was a beautiful April evening in Hong Kong and we were on the 32nd floor, surrounded by glitzy skyscrapers, replete with gleaming lights. A few of us friends had gathered to celebrate the momentous occasion of our 40-something friend going back to university soon. It was a bittersweet moment, as every farewell tends to be. Toasts were said and a...

An Italian restaurant is offering a free bottle of wine to customers who relinquish their mobile phones during meals. Angelo Lella, the owner of Al Condominio, a restaurant that opened in the northern city of Verona in March, said the aim was to encourage diners chat to each other instead of constantly glancing at their phones.  “We wanted to open...

Italian food and beverage continues to climb the world rankings, and it comes out on top in the U.S. where Italy, behind Mexico and Canada, is the third country from which the U.S. imports the most food and beverage products, and it is precisely to Italian excellence that the fifth edition of the "Authentic Italian Food & Wine Festival" event will...

The Italian wine industry (that will be meeting at Vinitaly, from April 13th to 17th, in Verona, which is the largest trade fair in the sector celebrating one of Italy’s symbolic products, ed.), is going through a moment of “transition” and has many challenges ahead to face. At the same time, though, it can count on solid foundations as it has an i...

The dawn of 2024 heralds a fresh pinnacle for Italian food and beverage exports, boasting a robust +14% surge in January compared to the corresponding period last year, despite prevailing international strains. This revelation stems from Coldiretti, an Italian farmers association, parsing Istat data. Notably, this trajectory stands in stark contras...

In 2023, Italian PDO wines upheld their robust export trajectory, eclipsing the €5.1 billion threshold (+0.3% from 2022). Nonetheless, volumes saw a downturn, tallying 1.3 million hectoliters, marking a -3.8% dip. This steadiness secured Italy’s second spot in Europe among PDO wines exporters, trailing France and leading Spain. Given Spain and Fran...