Italian wines and Asian markets: opportunities and threats under new policy scenarios and competitive dynamics

The world wine market is facing a particularly difficult situation. Both the EU and New World (NW) Countries are trying to manage this critical moment by filling reciprocal gaps in order to increase their competitiveness at a global level and to strengthen their position in key strategic markets. On the EU side, one of the fundamental aspects of this changing framework is the evolution of the Common Market Organisation (CMO) for the wine sector. The first pivotal change is the fact that a parcel of land cannot host more than one designation of origin (either Geographical Indication – GI – Denominazione di Origine Controllata – DOC – or Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita – DOCG), thus completely changing the approach to vintage choices, which characterised the Italian production in the last 50 years. A second important variation is the introduction of the possibility to show grape varieties and the vintage year on table wines (a strategy often used by NW producers). Conversely, on the NW side, the changes are mainly relative to the increase in the use of European grape varieties and the emphasis on the region-grape combination as an element of excellence.