Many times, misunderstandings and prejudices about things are often due to ignorance of this matter. Although Italian wine is great, due to its complicated system and lack of support from education and interest system, it has become a god-like existence that is not understood by most lovers and consumers in China wine market.
Sun's words have two meanings. First of all, everyone drinks French wine at first, and Italy usually comes into contact later. The second layer is that you have drunk too much wine for a long time, and you know more and more about wine. If you come into contact with Italian wine, you are likely to become a loyal fan of Italian wine.
There are more and more loyal fans of Italian wine around me. Only when you meet these people and get to know them well can you understand the meaning of Sun's words.
The Italian wine lovers I met are enthusiastic, love life, love learning, have enthusiasm and strong logical thinking ability. Their wine knowledge and experience are generally profound, and they have a full understanding of the world's major wine producing areas and famous wineries.
Because most of their knowledge of wine began in France and they drank a lot of wine in the New World, they can objectively understand the global wine system and have a clear understanding of the advantages and characteristics of Italian wine.
There is no need to create such a conflict between French wine and Italian wine. In the colorful wine world, every country, every producing area and every grape variety has its own unique personality and charm. As long as it is good wine, it doesn't matter where it comes from. The old world and the new world have their own wonderful things.
Because only by knowing more can we look at the problem more objectively. I try to analyze the two meanings of what Sun said from an objective point of view.
When I explain Italian wine to you, I usually give you a concept that I created myself. I usually say, "In my wine world, I divide wine producing countries into Italy and other countries." Why is it so divided? Because the major wine-producing countries in the world except Italy actually use French grapes to make wine. These French grapes (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Black Pi Nuo, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Riesling, etc.) are popular all over the world and are usually called international varieties by Italians. Although wine spread in Europe with the conquest of the Roman emperor, France did make great contributions to the development of modern wine industry.
Therefore, in most cases, as long as wine merchants and consumers don't know the grape variety of 10, it is easy to go deep into the major wine-producing countries (French, Chile, Australia, USA, South Africa, Spain and even China) except Italy. But if you want to know about Italy, you will find 10 kinds of grapes you are familiar with. Although it is also planted in Italy, what is even more exciting is that there are more than 400 Italian native varieties that you don't know at all.
Not to mention wine merchants, there are many professionals, because in their study and work, they are mainly exposed to the knowledge system centered on French grapes and ordinary brewing techniques. After all, the major wine producing countries in the world except Italy have developed according to the philosophy and logic of French wine brewing. Even professionals who have mastered very rich knowledge of French wine and obtained very professional wine education (such as WSET level 3 or above) certification often know little about Italian wine.
Therefore, I think the diversity and complexity of Italian wine is the greatest, but there is no universal knowledge and education support in China, which may be the main reason why Italian wine entered the market late.
Of course, French wine companies entered China earlier, which is due to the French business acumen. After all, the bosses of many famous French villages are mostly well-known French enterprise groups and tycoons, who have made great contributions to the enlightenment and education of China wine market.
Interestingly, from the perspective of brand communication, French wine has been able to establish a high reputation in China. What's more, thanks to Zhang Yu and the Great Wall, hundreds of millions of RMB were invested in advertising many years ago. The theme is to describe that Shandong and Hebei producing areas have the same latitude as Bordeaux, so they can also produce high-quality wines. In the eyes of China people, Bordeaux will be shaped as the only wine temple, although this is not the case.
Of course, it was also the promotion of Lafite by gangsters, gamblers or rich people in Hong Kong movies twenty or thirty years ago. You know, in that era when people's cultural life was relatively poor, the ratings of many Hong Kong movies were above 654.38 billion. From this perspective, the success of anything is not accidental, and the factors that affect success are often subtly related to this matter.
Today, the market share of Italian wine in China is only 5.5%, ranking behind France, Australia, Chile and Spain. So I often encounter the question, is Italian wine bad?
The real fact is that Italy is currently the largest wine producer in the world, and its market share is the first in mature markets such as the United States, Germany and Britain.
China is the second largest wine market in the world, but it lists 13 as the Italian export destination. The import of Italian wine in China market is less than 1/50 of the total Italian wine export. So it's really not the Italian wine, but why the China market is different from the mature market!
No country has such a large import volume of VCE wine as China, importing hundreds of millions of bottles every year. Some bottling plants in France industrialized bulk raw wine from all over Europe, made it into European table wine made in France, and dumped it in China. Strangely, I only see the wine farmers in the south of France angry, but seldom see the wine merchants in China feel ashamed and angry. Even questioning the quality of this product has become an easy thing to offend people or even be attacked.
More sadly, due to the great demand, VCE from France was in short supply, and the price began to rise, so similar products from other countries began to appear.
For twenty years, everyone thought that the spring of the wine market had come, but it never came. What do you think is the reason? Can VCE really make consumers have a good experience? Feel happy? Is there consumption stickiness and repeated purchase? For those wines that wine merchants dare not drink often, it is a miracle that consumers can live a few more years. Will they really drink loyalty and cultivate a healthy wine market?
In fact, this really can't be blamed only on French wine, nor on the French. Having said that, I want to say that there are many good quality wines in France, and there are also many good quality wines at reasonable prices in Chile, Australia, the United States, South Africa and China. We consumers in China really should enjoy more wine with good quality and low price.
Get to the point, if Sun continues to analyze.
For most wine lovers, the rich, changeable and uncontrollable wine is the main reason that attracts many people to explore constantly. Be familiar with French wine, drink all over the famous countryside, and drink all over the New World. Italy will be an unavoidable mountain range.
For most wine lovers, Italian wine is unknown, mysterious and inaccessible. To understand Italy, we should empty ourselves and try and understand it with a more open mind. It is best to have a friend who knows Italian wine as a guide in this initial process, otherwise many people may miss the newly opened Italian wine door because of ignorance and misunderstanding.
I often tell my friends who have just come into contact with Italian wine that we can't understand Italy by understanding French wine, because the philosophy and logic of grape cultivation and wine brewing in Italy are different from the wine world represented by France.
France's three representative producing areas, Bordeaux, Champagne and Burgundy. Respect for the terroir, but a lot of manual intervention, not only the grape planting environment, especially the brewing, but also the use of small oak barrels and yeast for secondary fermentation in bottles, are artificially used to make up for the lack of the terroir of grapes or to give some more perfect elements that do not belong to grapes.
I sincerely pay attention to France's great contribution to the development of wine industry and appreciate the quality of those nearly perfect French fine wines. Therefore, this concept and technology are widely used all over the world, bringing beautiful experiences to consumers around the world.
What is the difference between Italy and France?
It is the diversity of Italian wines, and the least manual intervention has realized the protection and respect for the terroir, and pursued individuality and innovative spirit.
I often use this metaphor to compare French wine with Italian wine.
I said, the style represented by French wine is just like going to a grand dinner party. When you walk into the room, all the men are gentlemen and nobles in evening dresses, and all the ladies are ladies and gentlemen in evening dresses. They are polite and gentle.
However, Italy is the same dinner. When you walk in, you will find all kinds of people, including politicians, businessmen, artists, scientists, stars, nobles, racing drivers, football players, engineers, it men, artists and musicians.
Even those who play music have symphonies and operas, classical and modern. Even rock music includes country, blues, psychedelic and heavy metals. This is Italy, with different styles and colorful, that is, inheriting classics and being willing to innovate; That is, respect the market and insist on individuality.
Speaking of which, can you understand why so many people like to drink Italian wine?
Maybe it's because of respect, maybe it's because there are more choices, maybe it's because no one asks you to remember whether this wine is famous or not, and whether it's expensive or not. In Italy, as long as you are willing to explore, there are always one or several Italian wines with good quality and low price that will make you unforgettable and infatuated.
I have a discovery. Many people ask me, why does Italy have a ranking instead of a ranking?
I said that no one in Italy wants to rank from the government to the producing areas, perhaps because they expect more fairness, or because they don't create interest groups.
In Bordeaux, France, why are there so few wineries that can surpass 1855?
Rating is to reward outstanding people. But rating is also a double-edged sword, because the ranking village may become the ceiling of interest groups and production areas. Eighteen arhats in Chile, who wants to be called the nineteenth arhat? This must first be approved by the beneficiary of 18. This is the Jianghu, which is universally applicable ...
I have been to many Italian wine producing areas, and most people think that the ranking can only represent the past and cannot inspire a winery to make wine better. They believe that every winery owner and winemaker has the right to pursue their own style and personality. The example worth learning should not be how to make wine look the same, but how to create more different beauty!
This is the Italian wine in my eyes, perhaps because I like it, which is a bit not objective. However, if this article can arouse your interest in trying and understanding Italian wine, I think our wine world will be more colorful and we will get more happiness from different experiences.