wine: Decline and wobble

Italian wine makers need all their might to return to the empire

If press conferences are the stuff of serious journalism, the rare sight of Italian wine producers bending reporters' ears in London last month was due notice that something big was up. Or rather, something small. The news is Italy's drastically reduced 1995 harvest.

The shortfall alone from 1994, nine million hectolitres, or 99 million cases, is twice as large as all of Australia's 1995 production. Another wound to national pride is the fact that France has toppled Italy from numero uno producer for the first time in a generation.

It would be bad enough if poor weather were the sole cause of the shortfall. More seriously, the steady uprooting of Italy's vineyards in return for lucrative EU grants has reduced the area under vine from 1.3 million hectares 20 years ago to today's 860,000 hectares.

So have cash hand-outs succeeded in reducing the wine lake, as intended? Not quite. As when listed buildings are demolished for car parks, vast tracts of native vines producing quality grapes have been lost, while higher yielding, lower quality vineyards remain. Abandoned vineyards include 10,000 hectares of native, bush-vine negroamaro in the Salento "heel" of Italy.

Thanks to shortages and the devaluation of the lira, demand has sucked Italy's cellars dry. The immediate effect of the crisis is that "certain previously sacrosanct price points will be breached", as David Gleave of Enotria Winecellars said. In other words, prices of your regular, common- or-garden soave and valpolicella are increasing, while barolo is already up by 25 per cent.

According to Gleave, "Italian wines will have to compete at a higher level against the best offered by France and the New World." But how can a major price hike be justified, in the affordable new world of wine? Italian producers were putting a brave face on things, suggesting that if the increase is reinvested in quality, Italian wines should be able to compete at a new level.

That's a big if. Nick Dymoke-Marr, chief wine buyer at Asda, said he would tough it out if he saw positive signs that the extra revenue was being ploughed back into wine. He was worried, though, that other supermarkets were already starting to treat Italy as a "no-go area".

Paolo de Marchi, a respected Tuscan producer, felt it was idealistic to assume that the price increases would lead to improvements in quality. Quality chianti estates, such as his own Isole e Olena, are not slaves to the market, so they do not have to put prices up to the same extent as the big boys. "In this situation, the price gap between poor and good quality wine will narrow. This is risky. "Poor quality shouldn't find a market at all," said de Marchi. But, at least, consumers prepared to pay a bit more will get their money's worth.

Emilio Pedron, the progressive head of the Verona-based wine giant GIV, agreed that the squandering of profits in the past is a factor in the large number of dilapidated Italian vineyards today. But he felt confident that minds would now be concentrated on improving quality and lowering the cost of production.

"Our vineyards are old," said Pedron. "No vineyard in Italy would pass today's health and safety laws. Italy will have to reinvest in order to renew." Let's hope so. Grower Piero Antinori, in London the week before, had admitted that many mistakes were made when Italy's vineyards were replanted in the Sixties. But, like Emilio Pedron, he was confident that Italy's "third vineyard revolution" would materialise.

For the time being, however, it looks certain that while the necessary painful adjustments are made, Italian wines will lose out to competition from France and the New World, and Italy's storehouse of fascinating local grapes will continue to dwindle.

At the end of the press conference, Emilio Pedron appealed to us to stress the positive side of Italian wines. He might as well have asked Martyn Lewis to file a report on the decline and fall of the Roman Empire

Recommended for value

1994 Taburno Falanghina, pounds 5.99, Tesco top stores. The textured richness of this distinctive, apple-y dry white from Italy's southern Campania region is cut by a zesty twist.

1994 Alasia Cortese del Piemonte pounds 4.99, Wine Rack, Wine Cellar. The native cortese grape's refreshing, apple-y bite is tamed by Australian wine maker Martin Shaw

1994 Umani Ronchi Montepulciano d'Abruzzo pounds 3.49, Waitrose (until Easter), pounds 3.69-pounds 4.19, Thresher, Victoria Wine. The new vintage Adriatic coast red is full of herby fruitiness, with a sweetly ripe fruit core and some rustic chewiness

1994 Mottura Squinzano Riserva, Puglia pounds 3.49, Sainsbury's. Made from local negroamaro and malvasia nera, this youthful southern red has an attractively robust, baked-plum Mediterranean spiciness

1993 I Grilli di Villa Thalia, Rosso di Sicilia pounds 3.65, Somerfield/Gateway. This luscious, modern blend of the native nero d'avola with sangiovese, cabernet and syrah is rich in youthful, ripe, blackcurranty fruit

1990 Chianti Rufina Riserva, Villa di Vetrice pounds 4.89, Selected Thresher, Wine Rack, Bottoms Up. Genuine, savoury-fruity, supple-textured estate, cherryish chianti riserva from the Rufina hills at an excellent price

1992 Nebbiolo delle Langhe, Mascarello pounds 7.99-pounds 9.50, Noel Young Wines (01223-844744), Enotria Winecellars, (0181-871 2668), Harrods. Aromatic nebbiolo rich in pure cherry and raspberry fruit opulence. A hedonist's delight

1991 Tenuta Marchese Antinori Chianti Classico Riserva pounds 11.95, Lay & Wheeler (01206-764446), Valvona & Crolla (0131-556 6066). Cedary oak and concentrated richness of sangiovese fruit characterise this stylish Antinori chianti