ITALIAN WINE DOESN'T NEED A FUNERAL. IT NEEDS A NEW STORY.

We've been reading headlines like this for months.

Problems exist, and it would be wrong to deny them. But continuing to describe Italian wine almost exclusively through the word "crisis" risks producing an effect even more dangerous than the crisis itself: convincing producers, consumers, and especially young people that wine belongs to a world destined to slowly shrink.

What if we started changing our perspective?

Not to hide the problems.

But to face them.

Because perhaps Italian wine doesn't need to be protected from the future. It needs to return to being part of it.

Yes, Italian wineries have too much wine

Let's start from reality.

According to the Italian Wine Union, in May 2026, stocks in Italian wineries, including wine and must, exceeded 53 million hectoliters , 7.3% more than the same period the previous year. At the same time, in the first months of 2026, both the domestic market and exports showed signs of slowing.

And the problem doesn't just concern Italy.

The OIV estimates that in 2025, world wine consumption will have fallen to approximately 208 million hectoliters , while global exports have contracted in both volume and value. But there is another figure that deserves attention: approximately 46% of the wine consumed worldwide is traded internationally .

This means one very simple thing:

The market isn't dead. It's changed.

And that's a huge difference.

Maybe we've produced too much. But above all, we need to learn to sell differently.

In recent years the world of wine has grown.

New companies, new brands, new labels, new vineyards and new entrepreneurial projects have been born.

Meanwhile, international competition has also increased.

Today many countries produce wine, invest in wine and export wine.

A consumer entering a wine shop in New York, London, Tokyo, Singapore, or Berlin can choose from bottles from many parts of the world.

We cannot therefore think that producing a good wine is enough for someone to automatically come and buy it.

Producing no longer means selling.

The real challenge of the coming years will be to realign production and marketing, but at the same time learn how to better describe, distribute, and enhance the value of what we produce.

Because competing solely on price would probably be the worst path for Italy.

Our strength is something else.

We don't just sell wine. We sell Italy.

Inside an Italian bottle there are more than just grapes and alcohol.

There are hills.

Families.

Villages.

Farmers.

Cellars.

Oenologists.

Artisans.

Restaurateurs.

Sommelier.

Cooks.

Hotels.

Agritourism.

Landscapes.

History.

Design.

Culture.

Tourism.

And above all people .

When a tourist arrives in Tuscany, Piedmont, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Sicily, Puglia, Trentino-Alto Adige, or one of Italy's countless wine-growing regions, they rarely simply look for a bottle.

Look for an Italian experience.

And this is where we must start again.

Wine is above all sociality

For too long we have allowed the debate about wine to be reduced almost exclusively to two extremes.

On the one hand, wine is portrayed as a sophisticated, technical, almost intimidating product.

On the other hand, wine is discussed exclusively through the topic of alcohol.

We must have the courage to bring it back to its most authentic dimension:

conviviality.

Italian wine has historically been synonymous with food, gatherings, family, friendship, territory, cuisine, and sharing.

Of course, consumption must be responsible and moderate , and no serious strategy can ignore the risks associated with alcohol abuse.

But responsibility doesn't mean erasing thousands of years of culture.

It means building a contemporary wine culture.

Drink less, drink better, know what you drink.

And above all: let's go back to talking to young people

Probably one of the most important matches is played here.

We can't spend our time wondering:

“Why do young people drink less wine?”

We should ask ourselves:

“What are we doing to make them want to enter our world?”

A twenty-five-year-old doesn't necessarily have to know a hundred appellations to feel part of the wine culture.

Let's get him into the vineyard.

Let's take it during the grape harvest.

Let's introduce him to the young winemaker.

Let's tell him who planted that vineyard.

We open our cellars to music, cuisine, art, events, and new forms of socializing.

We create less formal tastings.

We use understandable language.

Let's bring wine to social media without turning it into a lesson.

We bring producers and new generations together.

We don't ask young people to adapt to the old world of wine. We help the world of wine evolve with them.

A cellar should go back to being a place where things happen

This could be one of the great transformations of the next decade.

The cellar of the future will not just be the place where wine is produced and stored.

It could become a place where wine is experienced .

Open harvests.

Concerts among the vineyards.

Dinners with producers.

Events dedicated to the territories.

Meetings between young entrepreneurs.

Art.

Design.

Food.

Tourism.

Training.

Informal tastings.

Digital experiences.

Weekend in the vineyard.

Collaborations between wineries, restaurants, hotels, farmhouses, and tour operators.

Wine must once again generate a desire for participation .

Because a person who enters a cellar and knows the producer will hardly look at that bottle in the same way when he finds it on a shelf.

We need to stop just selling bottles

Perhaps this is the most important cultural shift.

A part of the sector continues to think like this:

I produce → I bottle → I distribute → I sell.

But the new model could be much broader:

territory → experience → relationship → community → product → value .

The bottle remains fundamental.

But we can build much more around the bottle.

Wine tourism.

Hospitality.

Catering.

Direct sales.

Wine club.

E-commerce.

Events.

Experiences.

International collaborations.

Digital content.

Community.

The future of Italian wine may depend less on the number of bottles produced and much more on the economic, cultural and emotional value built around each bottle .

Not all wineries will be able to survive alone

If we tell young people every day that wine is an old sector, in crisis and with no prospects, we can't be surprised if they choose other worlds.

Instead, we also talk about what Italian wine represents.

Earth.
Family.
Business.
Work.
Landscape.
Culture.
Tourism.
Innovation.
Export.
Sociality.
Made in Italy.

We are facing a generation that seeks experiences, authenticity, territories, relationships, and true stories.

We have had all this for centuries.

Maybe we just need to learn to tell it again.

ITALIAN WINE IS NOT FINISHED. IT'S CHANGING.

There will be companies that will have to change.

Wineries that will have to join together.

Productions that will have to decrease.

New markets to conquer.

Business models to be rethought.

And probably some certainties will have to be abandoned.

But we still have extraordinary vineyards, territories known throughout the world, thousands of entrepreneurs, unique skills and above all a heritage that no international competitor can completely copy:

Italy.

This is why the message to the supply chain should change.

Not:

“There's too much wine. Who's going to buy it?”

But:

"We have one of the most distinctive and socially significant Made in Italy products. How can we make the world—and especially the younger generations—fall in love with Italian wine again?"

This question can be the starting point for something much more important than a promotional campaign.

A new Renaissance of Italian wine can begin.

A Renaissance in which producers, winemakers, young people, restaurateurs, regions, tourism, institutions, distribution, and consumers once again feel part of the same story.

Because a bottle can remain still in a warehouse for years.

An emotion, however, travels.

And perhaps this is where we need to start again.