Bitter situations for Piedmont's Langhe winemakers

Bad situation for the Piedmontese winegrowers from Langhe

Barolo & Barbaresco : previous harvest is still in the barriques/barrels and no option but to sell the new harvest - at least in part - "al sfuso".

As a Consorzio you can sell nice talk on behalf of the whole group but the reality is a bit different! Talk to the winemakers you have trusted for years, with whom you have worked for years (i.e. more than 10 years) and you will hear a very different story. Which one?

The fact is that a lot of wineries depend on exports and US is part of that for many. There is a solid business there that has been built on for years. With the Trump issues and especially the very long drawn out drama scenario of higher and lower of the so-called "dazi" this became more of a psychological war. Vinitaly announced that they had more visitors even this year, a blatant lie! Everyone I called before Vinitaly said they actually had cancellations and out of 5 importers only 1 came for example.

Giorgia Meloni, the female president of Italy, tried to make a good run at Trump, was warmly received there. Trump would make sure Italy would have to pay much less. However Italy is now number two in terms of highest taxes. However influential we could see her on the television channels, so little has Trump left in his brainpan.

What is now the result of 9 months of "juggling" taxes to Piedmont cantinas, among others?

Many bottles are still not bottled and now that the new harvest should arrive especially for red wines, the cantina is still full of what was brought in during the previous harvest. Result the new harvest should still be sold as "vino sfuso" for a lot of cantinas.

Small cantinas - like the one we represent with Made In Piedmont Wines of maximum 10,000 bottles for 6 or 7 wine varieties do not know this problem but the big players on the market are really bored with the problem. Then especially Barolo and Barbaresco area because in Alto Piemonte they are not so immediately tied with the United States and the problem of exports with taxes.

At the time in 2015, Made In Piedmont Wines made a conscious decision to include only cantinas that distribute a maximum of 10,000 bottles for all their wine types. There are two exceptions to this notably Antica Cascina dei Conti di Roero and Tenuta Sella (the former 100,000 bottles, the latter 160,000 bottles by now).

Sales with 60-day payment terms that are just interpreted 9 months.

Consequently, many wine producers have recently done something they did not actually do before: export the wine to mainly European distributors/traders and not demand payment for delivery.

Terms of 2 month delay of payment to even 9 to 10 months then made of it by the distributor are not exceptions, have rather become the rule. The winemaker's response is: either the wine stays here or with the distributor, ends up the same.

This line of thinking has recently resulted in non-payment because a distributor assumes that for the sum of 4,000 euros, for example, no legal action will be taken. As a wine producer you have to know how to start here in Belgium! That you first have to go through an Italian lawyer who then looks for a partner lawyer in Belgium is a misconception. It is not at all necessary to work through an Italian lawyer. You can simply hire a lawyer who speaks Italian and French for Wallonia or a lawyer who speaks Dutch-French-Italian. Initiating the case in court is peanuts in time, a bailiff is called in by the lawyer upon judgment and not payment of the debts.

As you can already hear, I have enormous experience in judicial situations and therefore help many a wine producer, i.e. not the ones I manage myself, to recover money that would otherwise never reach them or to double the bill.

It is commonplace for me because for numerous of the restaurants I supplied to, I had to go through such a course myself to get my pennies. This was not once but several times and not the smallest players in the market but the big guns.

The vintner: your friend? Oh yes, marketing trick to play the customer in social media!!!

If there is one thing I have learned in my almost 40 years of self-employment, it is that I look for friends at the dog pasture, at a private event (not a networking event), in a local event, a concert or you name it. As a wine distributor, naming your producer as your family or your friend is really nothing more than a marketing issue. You show that you have a lot of impact on the market but that is only for those who can be influenced and unfortunately many wine lovers are.

The result of naming the wine producer your friend puts your position in a very down level. When problems come - and believe me they will - you can no longer negotiate neutrally. There is too much emotion in one issue or another. And if there's one thing I've been able to learn myself with Piedmontese it's that they can't take criticism. That cuts right to the bone. Piedmontese cannot separate their own self-image as a private person from the image of their wines. I am talking about Langhe here, at Alto Piemonte - so is closer to Milan - they are 300% good at that. The approach between a Barolo/Barbaresco producer in the context of a problem whatever it may be versus an Alto Piemonte producer is incredibly diverse. It is hard for me to explain this in a few words. Alto Piedmont producers help each other get ahead, in Langhe everyone wants to get ahead themselves but will never take anyone else by the arm. Remember, I have been trading with Piedmont since 2006: so it is not a recent observation, although I was most surprised by the Langhe code of conduct when I lived there from 2012 to 2019.

So much has evolved recently in the Piedmont wine scene that it is hard to follow it all, but also in Belgium. Take for example that a team building for a company almost always has to be a non-alcoholic beer or wine tasting.

Take the fact that at a company party in most cases only non-alcoholic beers and wines are served. All because the company is held responsible if there is an accident after an event. The company must then pay some or all of the costs. Also, sales of business promotional gifts have been declining year after year for 10 years, and companies are looking for alternatives to wine!

Drink in moderation, wine does not harm if you dose!