Today on Intravino I happened to read an article entitled 'Why Slow Food on Al Bano's wine at the Coop for €1.91 is wrong (convincingly explained)' that did not convince me at all. I tend to like Intravino a lot, but sometimes it seems to me that the journalists are guilty of a saccharine omnipotence... Don't get me wrong: I agree with many things written by Antonio Tomacelli... but I have several points that do not add up and that is why I would like to go deeper into what I have read.
The subject is Al Bano's wine. However, to call it 'Al Bano's wine' seems totally improper since he does not produce it, but buys the grapes from local cooperatives. I have heard of family tradition. I may be ancient, but for me wine is made by 'those who get their hands dirty'. I am grateful to have so many winemaker friends... And if there is one thing I have learnt in my journey in the world of wine, it is that wine making starts in the vineyard. Full stop. The rest I tend to consider more of a fashion... After all, it's cool to say 'my wine' and give it as a gift to friends and family, isn't it? Even more so if the wine in question is produced by a showbiz personality who can afford to buy tons of low-quality grapes to turn into an even lower quality wine that is sold at a price that barely pays for the cork, the glass and the label. I would also add a nice box... Or a figurine of Al Bano with microphone in hand to tie around the neck of the bottle... I am sure housewives will go crazy. And patience if for a few euros more you can buy a wine as God intended: it's not Al Bano's wine, is it?
Well, forgive me for my little acid premise... But I'm really tired of hearing stories of VIPs and pseudo VIPs who invent to make wine, oil, books... I go to the bookstore and I find the latest book by Barbara D'Urso explaining how the world is going (then the publishers ask me to publish for free or almost free because poetry doesn't sell in Italy anyway), I flip through the Coop flyer and I find Al Bano selling his wine for €1.91 a bottle. Is that even possible? Do Gigi d'Alessio and Tatangelo even produce oil?
First of all, I am tired of seeing Piedmont associated with Barolo and that's it. Did you know that Piedmont has 42 DOCs and 17 DOCGs? No, I say in Piedmont there are 42 DOCs!!!! 17 DOCG!!! Do we stop talking only about Barolo when talking about Piedmont or not? Same for the Langhe... I adore the Langhe... But there are also other wine-growing areas in Piedmont! And they are certainly not to be outdone! I personally believe that, beyond the objective greater effort required to produce a certain type of wine, the final price is very much influenced by the name of the wine itself. After all, the same thing happens in fashion, doesn't it? Louis Vuitton can afford to sell a plastic bag for €600, Patrizia Pepe or Twin Set are just under €200... And the designer 'unknown to the masses' struggles to sell a leather bag of great quality in terms of both material and workmanship for the same amount. Can you believe it? And then we are surprised if Gabriele Succi's Sangiovese Monte Brullo (Costa Archi) costs around €20 a bottle (slightly less) and Brunello di Montalcino with some labels can placidly exceed €200. First and foremost, we are talking about the same grape variety... Yes, because Brunello di Montalcino always comes from Sangiovese, eh! And as far as vinification is concerned... There are Romagna Sangioveses, like this one, so 'alpha' that they have nothing to envy to their famous Tuscan cousins! I was in Montalcino at the Welcome Brunello with the former 'poor' now 'to be married' Andrea and I can assure you that we drank Brunellos not worth the cork of Succi's Monte Brullo... And yet they know how to sell themselves... Starting with the events! Everything is branded and well cared for, the location is fascinating... And what do we Romagna people do? GiovinBacco in the Ravenna arena?
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Enough rambling! Let's get back to Al Bano's wine... In short, Coop Estense, which for the avoidance of doubt is a cooperative society founded in 1989 in Modena that operates in Italy with 55 sales outlets in Emilia Romagna, Puglia and Basilicata. Assuming that the promotion in question is reserved for Puglia, €1.91 per bottle as an average price does not stand up. As Tomacelli rightly reported:
"According to ISMEA (Institute of Services for the Agricultural Food Market) data, the price per 75 cl of Salento IGT wine is around 55 cents (2015 estimates). If we add €0.20 for the bottle, €0.15 for the cork and capsule, €0.10 for the label and another €0.30 in costs for the carton, bottling and transport, we get a total of €1.30 finished. There would be about 0.60 cents margin, but we don't uncork Champagne and then the cost goes up."
Antonio Tomacelli, Intravino
I would venture to say that to this 1.30 € finished must first be added the VAT at 22% of 28.60 cents. And the minimum cost thus rises to €1.60. And I stress minimum... Of a wine that makes quantity and not quality. So the singer's profit comes to... Zero! Are we forgetting a 40 % minimum revenue from the large-scale retail trade?
"The allegations made by the Slow Food Association that my winery, by charging prices that are too low compared to those charged by other wineries, violates the rules of lawful competition, evidently tends to bring public discredit to the detriment of my entrepreneurial integrity, but to no avail."
Al Bano, La Repubblica
Personally, I don't know if Al Bano will really sue Slow Food. Nowadays lawsuits and lawsuits are made for anything that basically serve no purpose except to diminish the famous freedom of expression. I don't find it absolutely wrong that Slow Food comments on the entrepreneurial choices of Al Bano who, for his part, has the sacrosanct right to respond (not threaten). What is certain is that the large-scale retail trade does not take on the promotions of individual products, but maintains its margin. Therefore, selling a bottle for €1.91 also means giving the 40% to the large-scale retail trade, i.e. 0.76 cents, as a minimum. We said that the finished bottle costs us a minimum of €1.30, but here we are left with barely €1.15. So it is fair to say that Al Bano sells his wines at least below cost.
Also... Am I the only one who finds it ridiculous to say that 'the promotion is only for members of the cooperative'? Are we or are we not talking about the Coop? Anyone can become a Co-op member, all they need is to be of age, have an identity card to show and pay a one-off €26. This is enough to access all the promotions. Intravino is right about one thing: 'there is none so blind as those who will not see'...
To claim that Al Bano needs such a slip to get publicity at the Coop I find demented. I fully agree with Antonio Tomacelli on the ending of the article:
There isn't a dry stone wall around here that doesn't know you and your songs, and some stones even like them: did you really need this operation, worthy of the best wine industrialists? Next time, control your marketing department better and prevent these blunders, which you then have to stammer a bunch of unsolicited excuses. As for the title of 'Ambassador of Italian Wine in the World', let my colleagues here shut me up otherwise I'll babble on.
I agree so much with Tomacelli that I wonder if he wrote the previous points. Or was he being ironic and I didn't get it... In which case I ask him to add a smiley at the end of each point for those mopey people who, like me, never get the jokes. He probably tried to put one in the pot and one in the kettle... Because you know, in today's journalism, this method is the most valid one for pleasing the many and incurring the wrath of the few.
What is certain is that these commercial policies destroy the small local vine growers... But above all they destroy the image of Apulian wines that already struggle so much to get paid compared to their high-ranking northern cousins. What frightens me most is that this system does not trigger a mechanism that will lead people to believe that if Al Bano can (s)sell at that price, others can too... Let us always remember that Al Bano lives on the copyrights of his songs... Certainly not on wine.
Al Bano does not need to sell out his wine at €1.91 to increase sales. Preferably he should redo his website, which, for an artist of his fame, is neither adequate nor up to scratch. In that case I offer myself for professional advice! 😀
What I really don't understand is why Slow Food 'attacks' Al Bano's questionable wine choices and is silent about all those who apply those prices on a daily basis. It has often happened to me in the large-scale retail trade to see wines at €1.99, €1.49 or less that were not even called Tavernello. It is either all or none, in my humble opinion.
I also find it hallucinating to talk about certain prices: winegrowers have the right and the duty to make a living from their work, so let's stop counting in our pockets. I have serious doubts that a quality wine can only cost €1.30 per bottle, and I invite all my producer friends to leave a comment on this or, better yet, their testimony. Surely one should not only pay the physical cost of the wine in question, but also the intellectual cost: I am talking about the talent of the person who thought it up and made it tangible. Or to a lawyer we start paying only the cost of the practice... To the web designer only the cost of hosting... To the hairdresser only the cost of the portion of the tube of colour. What about their work? Their professionalism? Their income? We send them to hell, of course!
One last point I want to make: I don't care if Al Bano is descended from a farming family. First of all, farmer and winegrower are not synonymous. But above all, professionalism is not hereditary. Never. A father who is a doctor is not enough to cure a sick person and a singer's son can be out of tune. So let's stop justifying this wine entrepreneur by virtue of ancestors who, in fact, did something else.
So enough of condemning Al Bano, many like him debase the wine market every day but, not being well-known personalities, go unnoticed. Supermarkets are full of labels of more or less questionable quality that offer us bottles below cost every day. Supply and demand are always connected. Instead of being controversial, let us teach the masses to drink... But above all to prefer quality, always and in any case. Better one less bottle that knows how to give an emotion than one more bottle that is easily forgotten.
Ah, a note. As an AIS (Italian Sommelier Association) sommelier, I have often been the subject of criticism from the FIS (Italian Sommelier Federation)... Who pose as the supreme masters of purity and quality. Poor Mother AIS! But isn't it precisely the FIS that in recent days presented Al Bano, on air on the RAI networks, with the special Bibenda (Italian Sommelier Foundation) award as ambassador of Italian wine in the world?
Less criticism, more content.
and what do you think?
A hug and see you soon,
Chiara
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IT