Wine: the first “Manifesto Envisioning2035 - Wine (R)evolution” presented in Milan

“Envisioning2035 Wine (R)evolution - Strategic Plan for Italian Wine” is the title of the first Manifesto of the entire Italian wine industry, presented during the morning study held today, Wednesday 11 June 2025 at the Terrazza Belvedere of Palazzo Regione Lombardia in Milan.

During the conference, the entire wine sector was discussed from various angles, together with some of the most important players in the sector, including: Danny Brager (alcoholic beverage consultant “Brager Beverage”); Gabriele Castelli (legal-administrative area manager Federvini); Roberta Crivellaro (Managing partner Withers); Luca Ferrari (Partner Withers); Vladi Finotto (Director of the Master in Agri-food Economics at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice); Edoardo Freddi (exporter and CEO FreedL Group); Roberta Garibaldi (president of the Italian Association of Food and Wine Tourism); Priscilla Hennekam (wine influencer and consumer expert); Robert Joseph (Journalist and wine expert); Christine Mauracher (Director of the Master in Food and Wine at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and President of the Society of Agri-food Economics); Alessandro Mutinelli (CEO Italian Wine Brands); Ettore Nicoletto (Industry Expert); Denis Pantini (Nomisma\Wine Monitor) and Fabio Piccoli (Director of the Wine Meridian publishing group).

Alessandro Beduschi, Councilor for Agriculture of the Lombardy Region, hosted the event : <the value of exports of Lombard wines has almost doubled, going from 176 million euros in 2009 to over 312 million euros in 2024. This is thanks to a constant search for excellence. In fact, Lombardy contributes 3% of national wine production, but boasts around 8% of Italian Quality Designations>>.

According to Edoardo Freddi (exporter and CEO of FreedL Group, an Italian multinational that has been investing in the Food & Beverage sector since 2018), “ It is not enough to produce excellent wine. You need to know how to tell it, sell it and adapt it to a changing world. You need strategic vision, collaboration between companies and investments in human capital. In this framework, five priority areas on which to act are identified: product innovation, opening to new markets, evolution of distribution channels, aggregation between companies and valorization of human capital.” Traditional markets (USA, Germany, UK, Switzerland, Canada) remain central but show signs of maturity. It is necessary to strengthen the presence with more sophisticated strategies and at the same time explore new outlets such as Asia-Pacific (for example South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines); Africa; Latin America and the Caribbean (in countries such as Mexico, Colombia and Brazil). “I decided to promote, through FreedL Group, this Summit together with Ettore Nicoletto because I feel, first of all as a person deeply involved in this sector, the need to open a space for real dialogue. Italian wine needs a structured moment of collective reflection. As entrepreneurs, we feel the responsibility to facilitate discussion and stimulate a shared vision, which looks beyond individual companies and aims at the competitive strengthening of our country system. This is only the first step of a path that we want to make continuous and increasingly inclusive”, comments exporter Edoardo Freddi, one of the main organizers of this initiative.

The socio-economic role of wine in Italy is decidedly important: 30,000 companies with a turnover of 16 billion euros, of which they export 8.1 billion euros and employ 74,000 people. 681,000 hectares are cultivated with wine vines, of which 60% are in the hills and mountains and 19% are organic.

Italy is the world's leading wine exporter by volume (2,155 million liters vs. 1.285 billion liters for France) and second by value (8.1 billion euros vs. 11.671 billion euros for France). Today, Italy is the leader in wine exports to 46 foreign countries. Over the last 10 years, the average export price of bottled still wines has increased by 41% in value, but the gap to be filled compared to competitors is still wide.

In future scenarios, we can glimpse opportunities but also some threats. In fact, wine consumption has decreased worldwide: it has gone from 236 million hectoliters in 2019 to 214 million in 2024.

However, unlike what happened in France (weighed down by the decline in champagne), Italian wine exports have grown, thanks to the drive of sparkling wines (8.9% in 2024 vs 2023), especially Prosecco DOP (11.1% export in value). In Italy, thanks to the change in consumer tastes, the consumption of sparkling wines is growing while that of red wine is decreasing.