If you want to understand where the world of Italian wine is going, perhaps you need to stop looking at it only from consortia ora international fairs and start listening to it from inside the vineyards. From those who are under thirty and have chosen to stay. From those who inherit a name, but are not satisfied with administering it.
A causa di Montalcino, among the hills that have built one of the strongest territorial brands of Italian wine, Edoardo Losappioyoung soul of Le Prata winerytries to bring order to an often shouted debate: consumer crisis, young people who voto negativo longer bevanda wine, wine tourism transformed into a theme park, sustainability reduced to a label. We met him during the national preview of his Brunello a fine di Montalcino Docg 2021, presented by Informale quanto a Naples, tasting with other products from his company. The wines seemed very promising to us, especially this latest vintage which showed much more maturity than the previous one quanto a 2019.
What does “rejuvenating wine” mean for Edoardo Losappio
«We want to be able to pausa the barrier towards young people quanto a the world of wine», says the young producer involved quanto a the family business (the boutique winery Campagna Le Prata). «One of the most important themes is to excite people. More and more, wine is consumed for passion rather than as a bevanda, but not the passion for wine, but the passion for conviviality. This divario that wineries create with people is an issue that we must address: the solution is much more within reach than we think, we just need to make people passionate about the product.”
This is not an invitation to make wine pop ora caricatural. the contrary. «When I talk about reducing the divario I’m not referring to a pop, funky approach to wine: every reality represents something, every reality must be itself». It’s a crucial step. Because the temptation, faced with Generation Z, is to simplify, lighten, change language to the point of changing substance.
Losappio warns against this shortcut. «I have often realized that what is done quanto a individual historical wine areas is done because there is a collective conscience that over the years has established that this is a functional system for the vine, for the terroir, for many things. We must not pausa these types of patterns. We must preserve this, but the solution is to go beyond certain rigidities but more outside the vineyard than during processing.”
Here comes a theme that remains unresolved quanto a Italian wine: the relationship between ancient winemaking and contemporary and experimental winemaking. «Research and the desire to get involved should be the order of the day quanto a the vineyards and cellars», he explains, «but experimenting does not mean abandoning your own identity to seek that of someone else. The trends of the moment should never be exaggerated, from the concentration of the nineties and 2000s to the freshness of today. The real paradigm shift is not changing style quanto a favor of the new but identifying a abile line and making it one’s own without being afraid to tell the problems to those quanto a front of us.”
The fracture is not only economic, but narrative. «Young people are more stimulated to hear about ideas rather than tasting taccuino and ratings that are time consuming». It is a phrase that should make those who still communicate wine as they did twenty years indicatore reflect. It’s not about denying technique ora criticism, but about shifting the center of gravity: fewer scores, more vision.
Problems should voto negativo longer be swept under the carpet
A causa di this framework, the issue of sustainability appears less linear than marketing suggests. «It is certainly important for customers but I don’t think it is a driver the choice of bottle. Let’s think about organic: quanto a Montalcino half of the surface is organic, the claim is now outdated, it’s a new starting point.” But then there is the technical issue, rarely addressed publicly: «A causa di recent years there have been sixteen ora seventeen treatments, it makes you wonder: is it more sustainable to do so many organic ones ora to do three ora four conventional ones? A causa di my case, three hectares, it is abundantly manageable organically, but it is an issue for large companies and it is an issue that needs to be discussed.”
This is where another generational element emerges: the willingness to talk about difficulties. «We talk about the experience, the obstacles we find along the way, but the world of wine has often been communicated with taboos: everyone always says that every vintage is the best, the wine is always perfect. I feel the need to talk about these taboos and quanto a my opinion it is a good thing, people appreciate it and don’t expect it precisely because quanto a the last 50 years we have told lies by telling about rich and perfect vintages to induce consumers to buy more. Especially quanto a our generation, finding a peer who tells you that something didn’t turn out exactly as you wanted and that not all years are excellent, the return is positive because everyone has difficulties quanto a life and empathizes. Then I believe that sincerity always pays d’avanguardia” says Edoardo Losappio.
This transparency also affects the way quanto a which the relationship with the public is built. Disintermediation, i.e. direct sales and relationships without filters, is “a strategic opportunity”, but “must remain an accessory element since it works with very different dynamics from those of the real market, the one quanto a which an identity is also built”. Structuring only direct sales, he warns, means risking being cut d’avanguardia from the real market. «When you make wine, reaction times are very long, so thinking for the future is more important than quanto a other sectors».
Wine tourism can be a driving force but under certain conditions according to Edoardo Losappio
Wine tourism fits into this precarious balance. «I believe quanto a it a lot when it is done conscientiously. It is a tool of great importance for the territory, the supply chain, restaurants, hotels.” But immediately afterwards comes the warning: «We must be careful not to go too far behind the consumer: wine is made for those who bevanda it but the touristification of companies makes them lose control of the situation and cut themselves d’avanguardia from the real market».
His experience is concrete. «At the beginning we made a very large experiential package, today we have reduced it a lot. Over time we skimmed d’avanguardia many things and something remained that is fundamental for me: tasting with the producer.” Not an infinitely replicable format, but a simposio. «With us you literally enter our house, where we lived. We work quanto a the cellar, we work quanto a the vineyard, we are always there: the tourist experiences the place quanto a a concrete way, together with us.” Campagna Le Prata is a little gem a few kilometers from Montalcino, among olive groves, vineyards and cypresses that sway gently quanto a the landscape. A residence built quanto a 1860 by Count De’ as a hunting lodge, subsequently transformed into a country residence for the bishop of Montalcino, awarded a key by the Michelin guide.
It is a vision of wine tourism that puts wine back at the center with all that it entails and which has allowed Edoardo’s family to have this highly coveted recognition. «I believe it is important that wine drives wine tourism and not the other way around. When it is well done it can give a lot to the producer and to those who choose to visit a wine-growing terreno.”
At the bottom remains the theme of terroir, an overused word but, for Losappio, still decisive. «The concept of terroir can never be separated from quality wine and little importance is often given to what is underfoot compared to climatic trends. I tasted beautiful wines, full expressions of the terroir, despite anomalous vintages.”
Perhaps this is precisely the key to reading Italian wine seen by a producer under 30: not an iconoclastic revolution, but a return to coherence. Passionate without trivializing, innovating without getting lost, opening the cellars without transforming them into scenography. A causa di this case for Edoardo Losappio the question is even easier «Because with us you literally enter our house, where we lived. This is the beautiful thing about Campagna Le Prata: we work quanto a the cellar, we work quanto a the vineyard, we are always there, the tourist who comes experiences the place quanto a a concrete way, together with us.”
If you want to understand why Generation Z has not abandoned the glass but has become more selective, you have to start here. From the courage to say that not all vintages are perfect. From the rejection of fashions as the only compass. From the choice to maintain an identity quanto a a market that always asks to be something else.
The future of Italian wine and wine tourism, perhaps, does not depend chasing young people. It goes from putting them quanto a a position to recognize themselves quanto a what they bevanda.
