Com-St-06-05-28-Russia_ENG-1.pdf
Italy is one of the countries most admired in Russia. The roots of that love affair are cultural and emotional and they grow out of a sensibility based on many common traits. Quality Italian wines linked to the territory find ready acceptance on the lists of the most exclusive restaurants, in the private cellars of the wealthy and at the posh dinners attended by the Russian establishment, which invokes the Italian style when it wants to make an international impression.
Confirmation of the close attention producers of the finest Italian wines have been paying to this market was provided by initiatives organized on May 23 and 24 by the Institute of Quality Italian Wine Great Brands. The program took form in the two major capitals of this immense country, San Petersburg and Moscow.
Donnafugata, which has been present on this market for many years, was able to present the house’s finest and most prestigious reds, Mille e una Notte and Tancredi, the white Chiarandà and, for the naturally sweet wines, the prodigious Ben Ryé Passito di Pantelleria.
Enthusiasm, curiosity and real passion, those were the reactions of a highly select and representative audience consisting of leading restaurateurs, wine retailers, opinion makers and journalists, who were invited to a personal encounter under the banners of quality and elegance with the wines of the Italian “Grandi Marchi” consortium. The locations of the programmed events were extraordinary, the Marble Palace in St. Petersburg—where the G8 will hold its meeting in July—and the GUM gallery on the Red Square in Moscow with its splendid imperial hall.
On May 26 the third edition of Vinitaly Russia was held in the Info Space Exhibition Center in Moscow with guided tastings, workshops and face-to-face meetings with producers. Donnafugata is registering constant growth on this market whether in terms of volumes or revenues. In the first quarter of 2006 alone, the labels showing a woman with her hair blowing in the wind generated sales that were 40% greater than in the same period of 2005.
It was a success that José Rallo of Donnafugata could see with her own eyes. “The quality wine market in Russia speaks Italian,” she said, “but that’s not all. The maturity reached by the consumers of premium wines in Moscow as in St. Petersburg is such that they have begun to link wines with their territories of origin. Day after day they are acquiring a familiarity with the special features of different products that is truly unusual. The success of and interest in Ben Ryé is incredible. Russia is projecting itself as one of the most interesting and receptive countries of the new frontier of premium wines. Consumers’ choices, even individual and outside the traditional channels, show a knowledge and awareness that is well oriented to high-class products. For Donnafugata, it is an ideal market.
Baldo M. Palermo [email protected] phone +39 0923 724226
Laura Ellwanger: [email protected] phone. +39 0923 724258
Nando Calaciura [email protected] mob. +39 338 3229837
