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Selling Italian Wines
 Italy
produces some cheap and some very good wines: of course you know that.
New World countries make wines that the customers want to buy. Italians
want to make only the DOC and DOCG wines that they know how to make and
are not willing to change. Some Super Tuscans are now coming out but IGT
or table wines are still not very popular with producers.
Sicily, Puglia etc are now making wines that are varietals and to the
customer tastes. Luckily, for us it is possible to sell wines from different
parts of Italy. Many people want to buy Italian wines from muliti -regions.
With our contacts with the other important regions like Sicily, Puglia
and Compania, make it possible for us to connect with many such producers
and give a much fuller and wider range of products from members of the
other states.
So it becomes easier to sell to customers what they want and not only
what the producers have to offer.
Promotional and Commercial Support
'One of the services we at FederExport Piemonte provide is listing,
dates of international shows which keeps us abreast in maintaining the
data. We also organise trade missions. We promote company image of all
the members in the overseas markets. We also collectively participate
in the foreign trade shows, like we are doing in the IFE-India. We often
organise workshops too,' adds Monforte.
There is not enough being done to spread the wine culture in India. For
instance, foreign producers make a lot of efforts to find an importer
and sell wine to him. But what he does with the promotion at the final
end is of no concern of theirs and I think this should change.
Of course, the cost of wine is an issue too. Wine should not cost more
than the food. But here, the wine prices are too high and that could be
a deterrent.
There is history and culture in our bottle
'To sell Italian wine one must know that Italian wines have a long history-every
bottle has some story to tell. This story must be told. We are not like
Australia who were 'born yesterday' and have no history but have a great
capacity to enter a market. They have some inexpensive wines but they
are good in marketing. Italy has 2000 -3000 years of winemaking history
and the customers need to be educated about it.'
But Australia exports some really value-for-money wines, I comment. 'Its
not true that Australia makes cheap wines. Italy also has cheap and expensive
wines. You have to teach the customer about the culture.' To that extent
FederExport Piemonte is prepared to organise courses for sommeliers in
Italy after they have had the basic grounding in the country, including
India. 'Our Federation can even sponsor some of the finalists-like we
do for China, Peru and Poland etc.,' adds Giuseppe.
Taste the Italian wine
 'How
exactly do you do that?' I ask him. 'Select correct and intelligent importers.
We invite many importers to Italy from countries like Argentina, China,
Brazil and Korea. They taste the wine, learn our wine tradition, system
of production. They are then able to present these wines properly to the
consumer.'
'They have to know each wine and match it with food to be able to advise
the customer what they should be drinking with their food.'
Giuseppe Monforte should know what he is talking about. A resident of
Torino in Piemonte who grew up in the city, he has been in the Made in
Italy promotion for 32 years. He has been the President of the Federexport
Piemonte- the Piemontese arm of the Federexport, Italy, which was formed
in 1992.
It has 36 consorzios as its members, 5 of them in wine and 3 dealing
in the export of food. Piemonte (Piedmont) is one of the most important
Italian regions with Fiat (partners of Tata in India) being their star
corporation. Traditionally known for its mechanical sector, it is also
the most important wine regions of Italy, with 54 doc and 11 docg appellations.
The Indian wine market
I know your market is growing and is an extremely important market for
us. That is why we took part in IFE-India this year. We plan to concentrate
on this market in a big way in 2008. You will see a lot of our activities
from us in the coming year.
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