The Italian Trade Agency hoped its ‘Borsa Vini Italiani Dublin’ tasting could bring some of Italy’s top producers and Ireland’s main wine buyers together.
My main beat is writing about wine for consumers, so when an email arrived inviting me to Borsa Vini Italiani, a tasting of Italian wines in Dublin, not currently imported, my initial reaction was a shrug as, well, there’s no point in my recommending wines that people can’t buy. But The Buyer’s editor-in-chief asked me to attend and get the low down. Were the wines any good? Did many buyers attend? Was it a worthwhile exercise for the Italians. In short, did any business get done?
I remained sceptical right up until I reached the first table. My initial thought was “why are they unrepresented here, are they not very good or offering wines the market doesn’t want or at the wrong prices?”
Welcome to Borsa Vini Italiani Dublin…
The first wines I tried were from Casa Lucciola, a small organic estate producing excellent Verdicchio di Matellica, including a really well executed amber skin contact version. So why weren’t they already represented here? They’re new to exporting and but already did so a few countries and it was time to try and add Ireland to the list. Fair enough. I sent several buyers their way if anyone asked what was worth trying.
If you’re hosting a ‘seeking representation’ Italian wine tasting, you and the exhibitors are, by definition, hoping to have key buyers attend. Those buyers would, hopefully, encompass the whole spectrum of types of importers to match up with the varied producers, small and large, targeting different sectors.
Target audience
Ideally then you’d hope attendees would include large scale buyers from supermarkets and chains, medium to large wholesalers with significant reach across the on trade and with independent retailers, any wholesalers specialising in Italian wines and one or two specialising in organic and natural wine. There are other smaller buyers too, retailers, some solely online, others bricks and mortar stores who import and sell direct to the public.
Borsa Vini Italiani Dublin attracted many of Ireland’s senior wine buyers including Dunne’s wine buyer Karen O’Donoghue (right).
Well, this fair, unquestionably, ticked all those boxes and more. The supermarket with the highest groceries market share in Ireland is Dunnes and their buyer was there, for several hours. The biggest off-licence chain, O’Briens, had a buyer there too, as did Dublin area chain Molloys.
There was impressive array of over 40 importers, small, medium and large. Significant larger ones with national reach including Findlater, Tindals, Vinostito, Mackenway, Dalcassian, Ampersand and Wine Mason. Italian specialist importers attending included A Taste of Italy, Wines of Italy and Grape Circus, the later specialising in natural wines. Significant smaller and medium sized importer/wholesaler or importer/retailers included Mitchell & Son, jnwine.ie, Grace Campbell, Celtic Whiskey, curiouswines.ie, Boutique Wines, Whelehan’s, Carrington, Neighbourhood Wines, thevineyard.ie, Silex and McHughs, who’s owner Cathal McHugh is also chair of the national off-licence association.
Northern Ireland wholesaler Robb Brothers, who also trade south of the border were also represented and of course Jim Nicholson’s jnwine.com sell on both sides of the border too as well as into GB.
There were in addition a number of sommeliers and restaurateurs in attendance including Paul Fogerty, head sommelier at the 5-star Ashford Castle Hotel. You’d also hope that some communicators and educators were there too, so that word would get out at how good the wines were and that box was ticked too. Including myself there was a sprinkling of critics from national newspapers, a trade publication and radio as well as WSET educators and social media wine influencers.
High quality
The Borsa Vini Italiani tasting was a great opportunity for Ireland’s top wine buyers to see what is really happening in all areas of Italy
So, would these assembled buyers have found wines on offer that were worth importing? Most but not all of Italy’s regions were represented amongst the exhibitors, but I found standards of the wines on offer high on the whole and I’d be happy to see many of them on sale in Ireland.
The aforementioned Casa Lucciola was a particular highlight but there were others too. They included three producers from Tuscany. The first, organic producer Fabrizio Dionisio, based in the Cortona DOC¸ didn’t feature any Sangiovese but rather mostly very good Syrah and Viognier. Famiglia Cecchi did feature Sangiovese with excellent versions of the different DOC/DOCGs of Chianti Classico, Montefalco Rosso and Morellino di Scansano.
The small organic winery of La Sala del Torriano’s focus is Chianti Classico bar a Toscana IGT Merlot and they all shared the delightful qualities of good fruit, fine tannins, freshness and drinkability.
Piemonte had exhibitors there and those who are familiar with my preferences know that I tend to struggle with Nebbiolo based wines, often finding them too tannic and acidic and lacking a core of balancing fruit. The Orlando Abrigo winery’s beautiful Barbarescos and lovely Langhe Nebbiolo didn’t conform to my feared stereotype. All had attractive floral aromatics, purity of fruit, savoury notes and structure rather than harsh tannin. I’d love to see them imported.
Nearby was Stefano Occhetti, based in the Piemonte DOCG of Roero. He’s exactly the kind of producer this event was aimed at helping, having swapped engineering for the risky business of growing grapes and wine making only a few years ago. He’s clearly on the right track with a trendy Arneis and elegant Nebbiolos.
Borsa Vini Italiani was hosted by the Italian Trade Agency
Irish supermarket shelves are stuffed with sweetened South Italian reds, attempting to mimic, I assume, the success of many New World brands and the politest thing I can say is they’re not my cup of tea. I feared that there’d be several exhibitors trying to ride that bandwagon. I was then delighted to find organic Puglian producer Caiaffa Vini Biologici, the absolute antithesis of that genre. None of the reds were sweetened or remotely jammy, but elegant and fresh and there was also a white made from a grape new to me, Fiano Minitolo, which is not, apparently, Fiano, but has a muscat like aromatic quality, They even have a rosé pet-nat, so are a hipster’s delight.
Sparkling choices
Selling sparkling wine in Ireland is a Sisyphean task, skewed by Ireland’s absurd excise tax rate of €6.37 a bottle, twice the still wine rate, so sales are dominated by Frizzante Prosecco, taxed at the lower rate, most of which I find frankly ‘meh’. Trying to find an importer then for full tax fizz, that isn’t Champagne requires boundless optimism and I found a couple I hope succeed. There was some fab Franciacorta on Vigneti Cenci’s stand.
Most of the Prosecco sold in Ireland is medium dry, despite the misleading ‘Extra Dry’ tag with its 12-17g/l RS, so I was delighted to see a producer, Bianchin, with a full tax wire spumante closure Brut version and next to it an Extra Brut with just 3 g/l RS. I was shocked but delighted by the quality too.
The verdict
Martin Moran came away impressed both by the quality of the wines on show, but the high turn out for senior wine buyers from across the Irish wine industry
Was the event a success? PR organiser Jean Smullen said 82 people attended, which she says is about as good as can be expected given the size of the Irish market and the number of importers. She explained that there are only approximately 75 wine importers, 15 larger ones, about 25 mid-sized and another 30-40 small operators. The still wine market, according to IBEC’s Wine Ireland 2022 report, totals 8.8 million cases and Italy has a 10.4% share. A significant chunk of that is Prosecco Frizzante, taxed at the still wine rate not the sparkling rate.
The event’s main objective was to attract a spectrum of key buyers and it’s fair to say that, as outlined above, that was achieved but whether they found what they were looking for remains to be seen. The proof of the pudding will come over the next couple of months. Since the event I have been told and spoken to a few buyers myself that they planned to have further discussions at Wine Paris & Vinexpo Paris or Prowein in March. I hope they bear fruit.
