Italian wine is reborn as European

Good wine in Italy has been drunk at least since the beginning of the 20th century, we have news of excellence admired throughout Europe at least since the mid-19th century. Yet Italian wine at a certain point in history had become a problem for the so-called made in Italy, not a boast. Just go back in memory to March of 1986, when a handful of unscrupulous people used large quantities of methanol to raise the alcohol content of their table wines, making them poison. In the following years, Italian wine was viewed with suspicion, the internal market had collapsed, as well as exports, everything seemed lost. It was at that point that Italy imposed new rules and new forms of control. Rules and control partly suggested by the European Union. On the one hand there was the commitment of the winemakers not to repeat the same mistakes, to restart by focusing on quality. Since then, less has been produced, from 76.8 to 47.4 million hectoliters, but better: Doc and Docg wines used to make up 10 percent of production, today they are 35 (with Igt, born later, we arrive at 66 percent). A horrible story turned into a success story. On the other side, Europe has “forced” Italy to give greater weight to protection consortia (which already existed) and imposed a more stringent regulation (especially after the 2013 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy) to safeguard the quality of our Typical Geographical Indications both in the European and worldwide markets, thus reducing the possibility of adulteration and counterfeiting.

The wine itself is a shared story: “Because wine is exchange. Of culture, knowledge, applied knowledge. It has evolved and continues to evolve thanks to the study of what has been made, to listening to what other producers have to say ”, he tells Il Foglio Annette Hilbergco-owner with her husband Michele Pasquero and the children of Hilberg Pasquero farm in Priocca, Cuneo. “It’s a product that much more than others needs an expanded environment, capable of stimulating curiosity and someone who allows this to happen in a safe way”. Annette Hilberg is German, she produces wine in Italy, she knows very well that wine “is cultural contamination, man’s adaptation to the cycles of the earth, respect for the land, for plants, for the environment, because only from this marriage can a good wine”.

Wine is a source of pride for Made in Italy, but Made in Italy cannot be transformed into a cage for wine. Because there is no “new prohibitionist wave” (according to the Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, Francesco Lollobrigida) and Europe does not want to “attack with repeated blitzes at the Community level which penalize the sector” of Italian wine (according to Coldiretti).

The controversies of these days are aimed at Ireland’s decision to insert a warning of the dangers that the use of alcohol causes on the labels of wine, beer and spirits. On the subject, the European Parliament has found a compromise that introduces more information on bottles, but without references to health warnings. “And this too can be an opportunity,” explains Annette Hilberg. “Because it is in everyone’s interest to distinguish between consumption and abuse, between unregulated drinking and intelligent consumption. Above all of drinks produced by winemakers who with their wines transmit tradition, culture, social sharing, environmental sustainability. Wine is a noble product that must be drunk intelligently, and if so, it does no harm. On the contrary”.

Wine doesn’t hurt, provided you don’t abuse it. “Of course, the general rules, those that do not distinguish between the various Italian and European realities can sometimes create problems, but it is better that they exist rather than not exist at all. Because at least they protect both the consumer and the producer”, continues Annette Hilberg. If wine is culture, as it is usually said, it is necessary to ensure that this culture is carried forward in a conscious way.

Above all, it is harmful to think of considering oneself autonomous and of thinking of oneself as persecuted. “To make a good wine you need time, reflection on the mistakes made, on the fields and in the cellar. There is a need for the humility to say ‘I was wrong’ and to remedy one’s mistakes”, stresses Annette Hilberg. It is the story of Italian wine, which had to hit its nose against the abyss to become an excellence.