Interview with Zachary Sussman

[vc_row full_screen_section_height=”no”][vc_column][vc_column_text]Italy is the leading supplier country for the USA (followed by Chile) and if 2016 does not seem to have been as positive as we expected, however the increase in value for the first 9 months of the year was around +1,8 percent despite a contraction of one percentage point in volume (data from the Wine and Food Institute).

Secondo Lucio Caputo, President of the Italian Wine Food Institute, Italy needs a restyling of the Italian brand that aims to raise the perceived value of our wines.

We asked one of the central figures of wine criticism, Zachary Sussman, selected as the 2016 Emerging Wine Writer of the Year by the Louis Roederer International Wine Writers' Award in London.

Zachary Sussman is a wine writer, educator, and consultant living in Boston.
He is the New York correspondent for Punch, an independent online magazine that collaborates with Ten Speed ​​Press. His work has appeared in publications such as Saveur, The Wall Street Journal, Magazine, Bon Appétit, Wine & Spirit Magazine, Beverage Media, Tasting Taste e Wine searcher, among many others. It was mentioned in the “What we're reading” section of the New York Times Diner's Journal.

– Wine trends: there are important changes all over the globe. Which do you think are the most relevant?

“It’s a broad question, but I think the culture of wine in general is moving away from a type of product that values ​​technological or modern production where wine is a luxury good, and instead embracing practices that we might call low-fidelity, low-definition, or more traditional that see wine as an agricultural product that is an expression of a place. Another way of saying this is that “artisanal” ‒ the valorization of the pre-industrial, heritage, indigenous, and manual ‒ is evolving into a new form of luxury. We’re seeing this in the increased interest in categories like Champagne winemakers and natural wine, as well as the reclamation of previously neglected indigenous varieties and pre-industrial styles like Col Fondo in Prosecco or Orange wines from Friuli and Slovenia.”

– How Italy's image is changing in the US - assuming it's changing?

“It’s hard to generalize about Italy as a whole, but one thing I’ve noticed is the impressive rise of Piedmont, which seems to have displaced Tuscany in the minds of many sommeliers and industry professionals. This development has to do with the development of the “artisan” narrative mentioned earlier. With its family-owned wineries and diverse microclimates, Piedmont culturally aligns with our romantic conception of the winemaker as a “rustic” farmer who values ​​the land while Tuscany has a more seasoned corporate image. However, on a broader level I think we are finally learning to appreciate and understand Italy’s diverse winemaking heritage, not just a few key regions. Among many other trends, there is now serious interest in exploring regional wines that express the terroir of regions such as Campania, Liguria, Alto Adige, Friuli, Val d’Aosta, Lombardy, Umbria, and (perhaps most of all) Sicily. To this end, Etna in particular has emerged as one of the most exciting discoveries of recent years and has even acquired a loyal audience.”

– The USA is the largest market for Italy even if we are under pressure at the high end from France and at the low end from Chile.
It has been said that we lack an effective positioning strategy.
Do you agree with this statement? Or do you think that Italy is facing other types of problems?

 “Here as above it is difficult to outline a single explanation for all of Italy. It is also difficult to generalize about the US market: there are several different markets within the United States. The answer to this question therefore depends on which segment of the market you are trying to reach (the mass market? Or the fine wine market?). That said, while French wine may still be more popular or recognizable to the average American consumer today, I believe this is an extremely exciting time for Italian wine, as there is more room for it to develop. In this regard, in a period in which American consumers are more curious and willing to experiment than before, Italian differentiation represents the greatest advantage for the Bel Paese”.

– The Prosecco phenomenon: how much does the average New Yorker know about the difference between the DOC and the 2 DOCGs?

“I’ll be honest: The average American consumer—even in a very sophisticated market like New York—has no idea what the differences are between the different Prosecco denominations. The difference is completely lost on most drinkers, as most of them think of Prosecco as a style of wine rather than an agricultural product that comes from a specific region of Italy. It’s almost as if Prosecco has become an international brand in its own right, which is unfortunate—since the region offers so much more than the cheap, mass-produced expressions that have turned it into a global phenomenon.” 

– Wine Trends in New York: What’s Hot Now?

“We tend to cycle through wine trends so frenetically in New York that by the time you call something “hip,” wine culture has already embraced the next big thing. First there was the Jura region of France, then orange wines, then sherries, then the “New California” movement, then pétillant naturel and other ancestral method bubbles, and recently wine from Georgia, Hungary, and other parts of Eastern Europe. On a macro level, I think this trend feeds into a larger trend, what you might call the “hipster effect”: obscurity has become the new exclusivity, and everyone wants to be the first to discover or set a new trend. In many ways, it’s the same kind of status-seeking that has always defined the wine world, now just transposed onto a different value system.”

Writing about wine: how is this sector changing over time?

“My hope is that wine writing has become more ambitious and broader. Rather than worrying about generic tasting notes or how a wine gets a score, readers today want to know about the social and historical relevance of a wine: who made it, how it relates to the culture of where it was made, why it matters, and what it has to say. My favorite wine writers try to provide context for some of these broader questions. At the same time, now that there are so many blogs and online resources for wine information, the field has become much more open and democratic; the hierarchical days of the staid wine critic broadcasting his or her opinion to the masses are thankfully coming to an end. I don’t think we’ll ever see a critic with the same power of influence that Robert Parker had in, say, the 1990s or early 2000s.”

Finally, what is your favorite wine?

“Impossible to say! It all depends on what I’m going to eat. I would say, however, that I would never turn down a glass of Champagne or an old vintage of Nebbiolo. And then the Loire Valley in France, which, in general, is a constant obsession of mine.”

Interview for ALEA Evolution, of Irene Graziotto . [/ Vc_column_text] [/ vc_column] [/ vc_row]