In each year of the last eight years we have visited and tasted excellent wine at a total of 64 different  family operated “eco-friendly” wineries in Southern Italy. A question, why is it so difficult to sell wines from Southern Italy in the USA and how can the problem be addressed?

In the next several paragraphs I will examine a target market, the problem of marketing Southern Italian wines and offer some recommendations on how to address the problem. I will conclude by highlighting some positive trends.

Target Market

There is a large wine consumer market in the USA, a country with over 18 million people of Southern Italian origin. This does not include many Southern Italian-Americans of split heritage with Italian/Irish as the most prevalent split.  There may be a greater population of Southern-Italian Americans than there are Italians living in the combined regions of Campania, Sicilia, Apulia, Calabria, Abruzzo, Basilicata, Molise and the hills of Lazio.  You would think that Southern Italian-Americans would consume large amounts of  Southern Italian wines. This natural target market does not. Instead, Southern-Italian Americans, as well as all Americans, seem to prefer wines from California and other wine growing areas other than Southern Italy.

Another target market are baby boomers. This group is interested in  collecting and consuming wines from many different regions of the world.

There is a segment of the USA consumer market that supports organic/eco-friendly production of food. Most of the 64 wineries that we have visited are certified organic/biodynamic or adhere to organic farming principles. This is another target market.

The Problem

There is a lack of knowledge of the excellent wines  produced in the regions that my grandparents and other Southern Italian-Americans immigrated.  Immigration from Southern Italy in the late 1800’s and until 1924 was prompted by lack of commerce, few jobs and scarcity of food. (Note, 1924 is the year the USA drastically limited  the number of Italians and other nationalities and non-Christians from immigrating to the USA because of security concerns and cultural norms inconsistent with the norms of the USA .) With little commerce and limited capital there were few wineries in existence in the South during this major immigration wave.

In the past 30 years numerous new wineries have emerged making wine with grapes that our grandparents and great-grandparents had used to make wine in the “old country”.  Over one-half of the wineries we have visited in Southern Italy have been producing wine commercially for less than 15 years, however, many had been producing wine from the family vineyards for personal consumption and local customers, or sold grapes to large producers of wine located in Northern and Southern Italy.  Although Italy as a whole has a long tradition of commercial wine making, but for a few large producers, there is no such tradition in Southern Italy.

When the USA emerged as a market, wines from California, France and Northern Italy were dominant. Wines from Southern Italy were generally not available. From my own experience in the 1980’s, I had to search long and hard to find a bottle of D’Angelo Aglianico del Vulture, a wine from the province of my grandparents’ origin. When I shared the bottle of D’Angelo with my grandmother she was shocked that anything could cost so much from Potenza ($15). Potenza  was (and still is) the poorest province of Italy.

For many baby boomer Southern-Italian Americans, traditional Sunday pasta dinners were accompanied by inexpensive Italian wines such Chianti in a straw bottle or Lambrusco. Others would enjoy home made wine made with grapes of unknown origin and quality, but many wax on of the greatness of such home made wine. Thus, Southern Italians’ view of Italian wines (we did not even know wines were made in Southern Italy) is mixed. Because of this history,  Italian-American restaurants in the 1950’s and 1960’s had several brands of Chianti on their wine list to pair with Southern Italian influenced cuisine.

As Italian-American restaurants expanded menus to feature Northern Italian cuisine,  Northern Italian wines (Barolo, Barbaresco, Brunello, Amarone, Super Tuscan) and California wines were paired with the cuisine. Italian-American restaurants featuring Southern Italian cuisine did not introduce Southern Italian wines to their wine list, rather they followed the lead of restaurants featuring Northern Italian cuisine by adding Northern Italian wines to their list.

Several years ago I had dinner at a restaurant in Providence, RI that advertised its cuisine as Neapolitan. The wine list had one bottle of wine from Campania, and no other wines from Southern Italy. The list included many wines from Toscano, Piemomte, California and Oregon. I expressed my displeasure via email. On a subsequent visit I saw that the wine list had been expanded to include a few more bottles from Campania, albeit from large producers, but the list still included more California and Oregon wines than Southern Italian wines.

Recently I ate at a new Italian-American restaurant. One of the reviewers on YELP commented that the wine list tilts to Italy, has a few good selections of Napa wines, but should consider expanding its Napa list. I spoke with the owner about this comment and the lack of Southern Italian wines as the wine list actually tilts to Northern Italian wines. The owner plans to expand his list to include Southern Italian wines, but added that many of his customers would prefer more California wines. For many diners there is a lack of an appreciation that Italian influenced cuisine should be paired with Italian wine.

Americans find a comfort zone in ordering California wines, or any other wine that is identified by an international grape. The area of production, the producer and the style of viticulture is less important. Do you have a Cabernet? Pinot Noir? Merlot? Malbec? Chardonnay? And if an American is asked which Italian wine they would like – the comfort zone reply is Chianti (although not a grape but because of its history as described above many think Chianti is a grape) or Pinot Grigio.

The wide array of Italian grapes, DOCG, DOC, IGT and table wines are overwhelming to wine stewards, retailers and consumers. It is difficult to interpret an Italian wine label. I once corrected a wine list at one of Boston area’s top restaurants. The wine steward mistook the initial PZ, on the label of an Aglianico del Vulture as indicating the wine’s origin from Puglia as opposed to the correct origin of Potenza. I have been at two excellent Italian-American restaurants that sell wines in which the producer is unknown. There is no identification of the company that bottles the wine, rather the identity of the bottler is a series of numbers. Numbers disguise the producer. The wine is a “knock off” made with excess grapes or inferior grapes that a producer places in the market at an inexpensive price. The producer does not want to be associated with the wine, hence, that is why the bottler is identified by numbers and not the producer. Generally, these wines have an attractive fictitious name. Before I was knowledgeable of this “knock off” production method, I purchased  several bottles from two wine stores. If wine stewards and retailers have difficulty sorting out the origin of  a particular wine, how can we expect the average consumer to understand Italian wines?

Recommendations

Education, Education, Education. We need to educate wine stewards, retailers and consumers Here are suggestions:

A. Unified Marketing

Ideally, producers from a particular area would set aside differences and embark on an international educational program. Understandably, this is a tall order. Why would large producers leverage their market position to assist smaller producers? Perhaps smaller producers, in particular those that adhere to an eco-friendly production of wine, should band together in a marketing effort. For the USA, consider educating certain captive groups such as consumers that support eco-friendly products, baby boomers and national and local Italian-American groups and societies. There should be attention given to groups that identify with an area of Italy. A collective effort should be made to promote a specific wine areas such as Irpinia or Vulture or Salento.

Southern Italian wineries cannot expect their importers alone to lead the marketing effort as they are busy selling their product. Few importers have a majority of their portfolio consisting of Southern Italian wines so they have to promote wines from all of Italy. Attending an importer’s showcase of his/her Italian portfolio is overwhelming. As described above there are so many grape varietals and DOC/DOCG/IGT/table wines that it is impossible for a consumer to have a meaningful educational experience at an importer’s showcase, but such an event is a start of the educational process.

B. Simplify

There should be an effort to have retailers and restaurants catergorize Southern Italian wines by grape varietal. In time, Americans will become more familiar with Southern Italian grapes. For example, instead of listing Le Vigne di Raito Ragis from Campania and Elena Fucci from Basilicata, consider grouping the wines under a heading of Aglianico.

C. Train

Train staff, as is done at Babbo Pizzeria, to encourage the customer to substitute their favorite American wine with an Italian wine. Instead of Pinot Noir try a Gaglioppo wine from Ciro’ Marina. Substitute an Aglianico del Vulture for Merlot. Instead of Cabernet Sauvignon try a Taurasi. Substitute a Primitivo for a Zinfindel (actually the same grape).

D. Encourage Tourism

American baby boomers enjoy traveling. Consider including tours of wineries with visits to historical and cultural sites. An added marketing advantage is fluency in English. A reasonable charge for a tasting hosted by the owners or winemakers is recommended In California, tours are expensive; the winemaker/owner is rarely available resulting in sales and marketing staff presiding over a tasting. My experience in Southern Italy has been the opposite; there is a nominal charge, if any, and I meet with the owner. Note, however, for the couple of larger wineries that I have visited in Southern Italy, I have met with sales personnel, similar to the California experience.

A special visit results in good will and person to person marketing in the USA. There should be less of a focus on selling a couple of bottles to a tourist and more of a focus on informing the tourist how he/she can purchase the wine in the USA. The wineries need to work with their importers to make sure there is information available to the USA tourist on where or how the tourist can purchase the wine in the USA.  Rarely have I found this information readily available at a winery.

There has been Progress

There has been small but exciting developments the past few years as certain Italian influenced cuisine in the Boston area have focused on an eco-friendly menu. These restaurants pair their cuisine with organic, biodynamic, natural or sustainable wines. As a result many small wineries have their wines included in the wine lists of these eco-friendly restaurants. These restaurants are educating their customers of the benefit of eco-friendly wines, many of which are from Southern Italy. Some of the Boston area restaurants that include a representative selection of Southern Italian wines include Taranta, Bar Mezzana, Guilia, Pammy’s, Benedetto’s and Babbo Pizzeria. Mucci Imports and Gianonni Selections are two importers that import only eco-friendly wines. Many of their wines are included on the wine lists of the above referenced restaurants.

Try the food and wine at the above referenced restaurants. Try a bottle of Southern Italian wine. If you enjoy, go to Eataly or Bin Ends or Federal Wine and ask for the wine, You then may soon be a wine ambassador for Southern Italian wines and you too can join in  educating others about Southern Italian wines!