Barolo does not fear the fall in prices of French reds

"Barolo en primeur" is the solidarity auction promoted by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Cuneo in collaboration with the Fondazione Donare Ets and the Consorzio di Tutela Barolo Barbaresco Alba Langhe e Dogliani. Barolo en primeur will be auctioned in the autumn, with barriques from the Vigna Gustava harvest, whose bottles will be ready in four years, as required by the regulations for the "King of reds";

Despite the common name, this has nothing to do with the French 'en primeur', i.e., the sales of wines 'in advance' of their actual marketing, which this year surprised with significant decreases, in the order of even 30% for prized Bordeaux wines. Another sign of the moment of crisis that red wines are going through.

Do Barolo and Barbaresco producers need to fear"French contagion"? "There is no alarmism, we have no concrete reason for concern," replied Sergio Germano, the new president of the Consortium, on the sidelines of the presentation of Barolo en Primeur. "Sometimes there is an unjustified tam tam that only risks causing damage even if there is no real basis for it," he added, "since we manage to maintain significant attention from the markets. We continue on our path, there are no 'plan Bs' on the horizon.

The downward trend in the consumption of red wines is in any case a reality and even bottled Barolo and Barbaresco has dropped significantly compared to the peak of 2021. "However, if we look at the last nine years, 2023 is an average of about 13.2 million bottles of Barolo and about 4.1 million of Barbaresco. In the years 2021 and 2022, more wine was bottled than was produced, because cellar reserves were also used, which logically are no longer there. The wineries have bottled their entire production. In recent years, there has been a significant evolution in the market's capacity to absorb it and there are no longer bottles of Barolo on sale for ten euros in German discount stores.

In any case, Barolo and Barbaresco can be considered a niche, given that the reference market is the world market, with export quotas of around 70% and a turnover that can be estimated at between 280 and 300 million. But the Consortium does not elaborate official data from this point of view: "During my mandate, one of the objectives will be to set up an economic observatory," says Germano. "It is difficult to make estimates because there are very different price ranges, but it is fundamental to understand how the market is moving, also in terms of catering and wine tourism, which is increasingly important both in terms of attendance in the area and direct purchases from the winery. In the Langhe there has been considerable growth, but we have managed to maintain a sustainable dimension, without structures with hundreds of rooms and with catering that ranges from trattorias to fine dining.