Record numbers for Vinitaly

The 18th Vinitaly competition begins next week with even more entrants than last year, extra categories and increased medal opportunities.

The increasing numbers point to the growing prestige of the awards, which are very selectively judged, with only 3% of entrants winning medals overall.

Vinitaly gets underway on 8 April in Verona and will run until 12 April. This year the show plays host to 1,000 entrants from 27 countries with 3,646 wines to be judged.

As a result, there are 100 more wines than last year for the 21 juries, made up of 105 trade professionals, to taste.

An additional award this year is the “Vinitaly Region 2010” which will go to one producer from each Italian region whose wines achieve the highest scores in other categories.

These wines will then spend the year on the Vinitaly World Tour, in a carefully targeted marketing campaign which will include exposure in Japanese retailer Isetan, which has 11 stores in Japan between Tokyo and Kyoto.

Those producers who win Grand Gold Medals, Gold Medals, Silver Medals and Bronze Medals in the category will have their wines presented in “specific promotion corners” of Isetan outlets.

Last year during this initiative, sales of Italian wine jumped by 100% compared to the year before. The scheme was launched in 2007.

Rupert Millar, 31.03.2010