The Valpolicella 50th Anniversary
Tour started its US leg on Monday in Chicago, opening a week of
events organised by the Consorzio Tutela Vini Valpolicella, the
Valpolicella Wine Consortium.
The tour, which was organised in collaboration with Consorzio
Tutela Lugana DOC, will continue in Washington, D.C. on
Wednesday, where a variety of wines will be presented.
The Consortium specifically chose those cities because
Illinois and Washington, D.C. are both part of the top 10 list
of US states with the highest rate of knowledge about and
consumption of this particular wine.
According to a survey conducted on a sample of 4,000 American
wine drinkers by Wine Intelligence for the Consortium, 15% of
the respondents knew about Valpolicella, in particular Amarone;
and 37% of respondents said they had drunk Valpolicella wine in
the past three months, in particular in California, New York,
and Florida.
Those percentages are similar to other famous wines such as
Rioja (16%), Châteauneuf du Pape (15%), and Médoc (15%).
"The American-market figures on our wines are positive
regarding knowledge, but a bit less regarding consumption," said
Olga Bussinello, director of the Valpolicella Wine Consortium.
"We need to work from here on promoting our wines, above all
in states where we have less of a presence, such as North
Carolina, Texas, and Colorado; here the GDP growth favors
interest in premium-tier products such as Valpolicella wines,"
she said.
The tour will conclude in New York on November 13 with a
seminar on the discovery of the Valpolicella region and its
history.
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