The good news has arrived: after the terrible months of the lockdown and the health emergency, the restaurant sector in Italy has finally restarted.
The love for conviviality and the joy of being able to share a meal with friends and relatives at the restaurant regained strength as soon as they were able to resume the habits of everyday life.
The even more interesting fact concerns another great love of Italians: wine.
2021 brought with it a recovery of the wine market, with a particular increase in the consumption of bottles classified as premium and super premium.
To certify it, the data presented by the Studies Office of Fipe Confcommercio, the Italian Federation of Public Businesses, as part of the Milan Wine Week.
The fine wines are the most chosen by Italians at the restaurant
Mediobanca’s analysis of wine companies shows that sales of premium wines grew by 14.5% in absolute value, super premiums even by 24.5%, ultra premiums by 32.7% and icons (bottles with a cost for restaurateurs over 50 euros) of 33.2%.
In short, after the great fear of Covid-19, Italians have started going to restaurants again and are increasingly choosing to accompany their dishes with high quality bottles.
However, a “downside” cannot be missing: almost all restaurateurs (98% of the sample) recorded an increase in the purchase prices of wine, which is around 12% more.
The consequences are easy to imagine: over half of the restaurateurs have chosen to reduce the quantities of wine purchased, while others have chosen to limit the labels to be proposed on the menu based on the region of origin and territoriality.
If Italians have rediscovered the pleasure of the “luxury glass”, they also seem to be increasingly attentive to tasting wines that can represent the territory they are visiting and tasting.
