Needless to say, 2020 has been challenging for most of us. Fortunately, some vintners in Italy are trying to make the most of the situation despite an overall decline in wine sales. Chianti Classico Consortium, one of the oldest Italian wine consortiums with 515 Chianti producer members, remarks how vineyards have “never looked so good” as a result of winemakers having extraordinary time to dedicate greater care on the 2020 vintage.
New opportunities for Chianti wineries
To provide extra support for Chianti producers and boost local economy, the organization launched several initiatives, such as financing schemes and a wine tasting program collaborating with top restaurants around Tuscany. This situation also forced some wineries to rethink their online presence. For Ricasoli winery, which boasts an 800-year old Castello di Brolio family castle, started an online campaign on social media that includes sharing a Chianti “recipe” from 1872 by Ricasoli ancestors, a video showing Sophia Loren in their vineyards, and using drones to take footages.
A Silver Lining?
Since Italy’s coronavirus measures started easing in July, visitors are slowly starting to increase. While sales has clearly not recovered to pre-pandemic levels, the Consortium believes that 2020 may just turn out to be an exceptional vintage as a result of the extra resources dedicated to it.
About the Consorzio Vino Chianti Classico:
The Consorzio Vino Chianti Classico exists to protect, oversee, and valorize the Chianti Classico denomination. Since the Consortium’s founding in 1924, the organization has changed its name and the design of its logo, the Black Rooster, which since 2005 has been the trademark of the whole denomination. As one of the premier institutional organizations in the European Union in the grape-growing and winemaking sector, the Consortium represents 96 percent of the DOCG production. The entire production chain is supervised by a public tracking system, which enables consumers all over the world to check the bottle they’ve purchased via the Consortium’s website. The Consortium also conducts research and development in the agronomic and enological fields, in collaboration with prestigious educational and research institutes. For more information, please visit https://www.chianticlassico.com/