From July 17th to July 23rd, American wine buyers will be exploring the east Veronese hills, meeting Soave producers to find new wines to launch back home.
Press Release n°32 /2016 from the Consorzio per la tutela vini Soave e Recioto di Soave
From July 17th to July 23rd, the vine-clad hills of Soave, the first historic rural landscape in Italy, will host a delegation of 14 select American buyers, coming fromBoston, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, New Orleans, Washington, New York, Denver and Houston, to assist them in finding new producers and new wines to present to their customers.
This is a strategic step in an articulated plan that the Soave Consortium has coordinated for 2016 in collaboration with the Full Circle agency and Evan Goldstein, American Master Sommelier and wine educator.
After promotional initiatives dedicated to journalists, communicators and buyers last May in Seattle and New Orleans, and previous sessions last fall in Boston and Chicago, the attention is now focused on purchasing, during which the buyers will visit wineries as they search for new Soave wines to introduce into the US market.
The wineries which will host the buyers during their stay are: Bolla, Bertani, Cantina di Soave, Cantina del Castello, Cantina di Monteforte, Cantina Giovanni Tessari, Coffele, Corte Moschina, Filippi, Gini, I Stefanini, Le Battistelle, Montetondo, Sandro De Bruno, Tenuta Sant’Antonio, VITEVIS.
For the seventh consecutive year, the Consortium and the Soave wineries are dedicating resources to a promotional strategy for the United States, the third most important market for the appellation after Germany and Great Britain.
The Soave appellation – 13 municipalities, nearly 7.000 hectares of vineyards, an annual production of 53 million bottles for an estimated value of 150 million euro – 80% of the production is exported. Of the total export volume, 60% is sold within the European market – in particular Germany, UK and Northern Europe – and 40% to markets outside of Europe- of which the US represents a 20% share of the extra-EU exports.
This past May, the Economic Observatory of the Consortium registered a sales trend in 2016 slightly ahead of the preceding year. At the top of the chart, is the Soave Doc which as of May 30th 2016, recorded sales of 22.700.000 bottles, followed by the Soave Classico with 7.500.000 bottles, and a total production estimated at 56.000.000 bottles.
Positive trends that demonstrate how consumption is on the rise. In the US market, the historically strong markets in California and New York are stable along with registered growth in the emerging markets of Florida and Texas. Also strong is Boston, downtown and the greater metropolitan area, where a number of trendy wine shops and bars have begun stocking Soave.
