At Simei-the Milan trade show of Unione italiana vini (UIV), the world leader in machinery for oenology and beverages-dealcification technologies are attracting the most interest.
Zero alcohol but lots of business, dealcolate technologies fly at Simei. “In the States we prefer to call them low sugar rather than low alcohol.” The different outlook-pragmatic and not ideological as it happens Belpaese-on the issue of dealcolated wines is summed up by Randy Ullom, winemaker and vice president of California wine giant Jackson Family Wines.
Also from the 70 U.S. buyers representing major star-studded wine companies: from Constellation Brands to Francis Ford Coppola to precisely Jackson Family, a giant with vineyards in the U.S., Canada but also Italy, France, South Africa, Chile and Australia. Echoing him is David Crippen, director of winemaking at Bear Creek Winery, the sixth-largest family-owned winery and winery in the United States, at Simei specifically to study the dealemaking equipment offerings. “Almost all the equipment we have in the winery is Italian,” he said, “and the leap in quality that tricolor wines have made in the last 40 years is probably related to these technologies as well.
A Made in Italy manufacturing trend
A Nolo (no and low alcohol) production trend that not surprisingly meets a match at Simei with the made-in-Italy offer, a leading country in wine technologies that wants to stay in the game, despite the dealcolation ban still in place. Yesterday was the official presentation of Libero, perhaps one of the latest innovations for large-scale production of dealcolates. A continuous loop capable of removing alcohol from wine that Omnia Technologies named so because it “can make wine taste unconstrained.”
“As of yesterday at the fair,” they say from the Italian group, which has 400 engineers and technicians at 39 production sites, “we are seeing unprecedented interest, particularly from Spain, Greece and the United States. Italian manufacturers are also expressing curiosity, but their impasse does not allow them to venture further “. Even for Vason, who has been in the wine industry for 50 years, the days are a bustle of Spaniards, Argentines all the way to Indians. “The market is there, in 2 years the interest has risen,” said the president, Albano Vason, “of course it would be quite different if Italy could compete on equal terms, in the vineyard and in the cellar. In Milan showcase on MMR (Master Mind Remove), a machine designed for dealcolation even for small and medium-sized wineries.
Strongly growing demand
From demand to supply to production among the pavilions of Simei in Milan, dealcolated wine is the elephant in the room. “Last year,” said Mionetto’s managing director Alessio del Savio, “thanks to the German parent company Henkel we produced and sold 2 million bottles of sparkling wine, this year we doubled that and are at 4 million. All sold, especially in Germany, the U.S. in the Nordic countries and Eastern Europe.”
