Top-performing vineyards almost doubled, with Friuli Venezia Giulia at its best. On April 2, at Vinitaly 2023 in Verona, Friulian agronomist and researcher Giovanni Bigot, founder of Perleuve, will be awarding the best performing vineyards according to his self-developed Indice Bigot (or Bigot Index).
1,215 vineyards, both in Italy and abroad, were monitored all through 2022 according to the Bigot Index, +481 than in 2021. The scientific method takes into consideration multiple factors that affect directly a wine's quality: production, exposed leaves' surface (SFE – Superficie Foliare Esposta), the ratio between leaves and production (SFE/kg), grapes' health, grape variety, the grape bunch's shape, hydro-stress, strength, biodiversity and microorganisms, the vineyard's age. 

This year, over 70 vineyards scored 90/100 points or more, and they almost doubled compared to 2022: they'll be awarded at Vinitaly directly by Bigot. It was an unexpected, good result considering the fact that in 2022 temperatures in Italy kept registering over 35° for long periods (+75% than the average in the last 10 years), causing serious water-related issues across the country. And yet, vineyards' health was preserved and a considerable amount of them hit high quality levels. 
«This year's scores are the result of winemakers' efforts and expertise – said Giovanni Bigot – Men have the power to take the right decisions when faced with climatic issues and the Indice Bigot, which is used all through the year, is an efficient device guiding towards the final goal, and helping to choose the best way to achieve it. Only by monitoring the available data and through specific, agronomic choices a high quality is attainable for both vineyards and wines. Wine tastings shortly after the grape-harvest confirmed the good outcome beforehand».

The best vineyards: … in Friuli Venezia Giulia
A vineyard in Valtellina, Lumbardy, scored the highest points, 94/100: it's vigneto Inferno – Nebbiolo Cartello of Aldo Rainoldi's winemaker. An overall 25 winemakers scored more than 90/100 and the best performing one among them, with a total high-ranking six vineyards, is from Friuli Venezia Giulia: Ferruccio Sgubin, in the Collio hills, with itsChardonnay Mirnik (91), Chardonnay Petruss Restocina (92), Merlot Mirnik (90), Sauvignon vecchio Petrus (90), Schioppettino Lonzano basso (93), Tocai friulano Petruss Restocina (91). 
Being Friulian, Giovanni Bigot succeeded in convincing many Friulian winemakers to adopt his method, and it actually paid off as many vineyards in the region scored 90 or more.

Here's the full list of Friuli Venezia Giulia's vineyards that topped the highest rankings:

Antico Broilo: Malvasia fiume (91) 
La Castellada: Tokaj Dolinca (92 
La Sclusa: Picolit Casa Banchine (90 
Le Vigne di Zamò with three vineyards: Pignolo Rosazzo (91), Pinot Bianco Leon (92), Sauvignon Leon (92)
Livio Felluga: Refosco Peduncolo Rosso Case (90)
Radikon: Sauvignon Klanjšček (92 
Russiz Superiore: Sauvignon lungo strada (90), Sauvignon Punta (92) 
Sturm: Tocai Bert (91) 
Subida di Monte: Sauvignon Vigna Luigi (91) 

Many vineyards reached a high level abroad, too, and some of them are in the neighbouring Slovenia, like Marjan Simčič who grows his grapes in the Brda area, on the border between Slovenia and Friuli, and ranked four vineyards in the top list: Chardonnay Oblino Pod Gredič (91), Merlot Trobno (90), Sauvignon Jordano basso (92), Sauvignon Oblino Pod Gredič(90).
Also from Slovenia is Korenika & Moškon with three vineyards: Beli Pinot Vala (90), Istrska Malvazija Bankina (90), Istrska Malvazija Vala (90). Other vineyards awarded are from France (Domaine Bouley) and Macedonia (Tikveš).

About Perleuve
Giovanni Bigot founded Perleuve back in 2012, a wine consulting company centered on vineyards, with a multidisciplinary approach. It's a team of agronomists and wine experts whose aim is enhancing wines' quality through a deeper care and understanding of vineyard's health. Besides developing the Bigot Index or Indice Bigot, they also launched the app 4Grapes, an operative tool enabling the monitoring of vineyards and the collecting of data. Bigot also started in 2020 the Academy 4Grapes, the first Italian academy for specialists in vineyards' monitoring.

Excellent wines, made by extraordinary women. Le Donne del Vino del Friuli Venezia Giulia (FVG Women in Wine) will take centre stage at the upcoming wine fair Vinitaly 2023. On Tuesday, April 4th at Ersa's Friuli Venezia Giulia pavillion no.6, they will be holding a special wine tasting for professionals and for the press featuring eight “Medal-Winning Wines” produced by their associates.

Sommelier and Donne del Vino FVG's vice representative Maria Teresa Gasparet, along with oenologist and international brand ambassador Lorenza Scollo, will lead the wine tastings. Four white wines and four red wines were selected among those produced by Donne del Vino FVG's winemaking associates that earned more praise and prizes both home and abroad, and will be showcased and tasted during the event starting at 4 pm. 
«Our wine tasting, thanks to our winemaking associates, really pays tribute to the outstanding quality of Friulian wines, as they're gaining more and more ground internationally», said Elena Roppa, Donne del Vino FVG's regional representative. 

​Here's the selection with the wines, their labels and their owners&producers: 

• Ronco delle Cime Friulano Doc Collio 2021, Venica & Venica, by Ornella Venica
• Sauvignon Segrè 2021, Castello di Spessa, presented by Eleonora Beviglia
• Myo Pinot Bianco 2020, Zorzettig Vini, by Annalisa Zorzettig
• Pinot Grigio Case Sugan 2019, San Simone, by Anna Brisotto
• Pinot Nero Terre Magre 2022 by Piera Martellozzo
• Terrano 2020, Castelvecchio, by Mirella della Valle
• Schioppettino di Prepotto Riserva 2018, Vigna Petrussa, by Hilde Petrussa
• Pignolo Arbis Ros 2017, Borgo San Daniele, by Alessandra Mauri

More Friulian flavour at Vinitaly 2023
At Friuli Venezia Giulia's pavillion no.6, more Women in Wine – Donne del Vino FVG will be present, along with many other Friulian winemakers, to showcase their wines and there'll be also other associates like sommeliers and wine reporters. The national association Le Donne del Vino will wrap up Vinitaly's 2023 edition with a special closing event on Wednesday, April 5: during a gala dinner at Palazzo della Gran Guardia, guests will be tasting both Friulian wines and Friulian typical products such as the delicious DOP ham made in San Daniele and frico made with DOP Montasio cheese, in collaboration with Consorzio del Prosciutto di San Daniele and Latteria di Aviano. 

Vinitaly 2023 will take place from April 2 to April 5 in Verona, at Verona Fiere's exposition centre and is considered the main wine event in Italy. This year's 55th edition will attract 4,000 producers from all over Italy and from all over the world, with over 30 countries represented. And it'll feature +1,000 top buyers selected from 68 nations, invited in collaboration with ICE – Italian Agency for Internationalisation.

Father's Day in Italy is celebrated on the day devoted to the most emblematic father, Saint Joseph (San Giuseppe in Italian). So on March 19th, just on Saint Joseph's Day, all over Friuli Venezia Giulia many “sagre” (country fairs) are held to happily mark the occasion – also anticipating the festive mood for the upcoming spring. And we should give thanks for that to the many, very dynamic Friulian ProLocos, who are responsible in most cases for the organization of such events.
Here are some Sagra di San Giuseppe throughout the region, to enjoy a beautiful Sunday out and about in Friuli with the family, partying and tasting local food and local wines. And for the perfect gift for Festa del Papà (Father's Day), Friulian wines would be certainly a good choice.

Abbazia di Rosazzo – Manzano (Udine)
​Traditionally called “San Josef in Badie” (Saint Joseph in the Abbey), Father's Day celebrations in the Abbey of Rosazzo will start early with a 3km walk from Case di Manzano to the Abbey (meeting point in via San Tommaso, at 10 am). From 11.30 am on, the food stand will be open and volunteers from Pro Loco Manzano will be preparing barbecue, sandwiches, hard-boiled eggs, local delicacies and sweets. And there'll be fun for everyone: a lottery for grown-ups, and an egg hunt for the little ones!

Villanova di Prata (Pordenone)
Saint Joseph's Fair in Villanova di Prata has already started, on Friday 17. And on Sunday 19, the local Pro Loco will offer visitors a program full of events, starting with a very peculiar tractors' rally. Then it will go on with a book launch at 2 pm in Piazzetta Papa Albino Luciani: author Alberto Cancian will introduce his latest novel “Il viaggio di Gioia” (Gioia's Journey). 
From 2.30pm to 5 pm, Prata Calcio F.G. Liventina Motta will set up a football tournament for children. In the afternoon, it's time to dance with “Country Eagles” and with some old-school break dance. It'll all end up with a Spring-Summer 2023 fashion catwalk. All through the day, food stalls and food trucks will be serving any sort of specialties, from local frico to Argentine beef and fried fish. 

Portis di Venzone (Udine)
In Portis, a very characteristic district of Venzone, the Sagra di San Giuseppe will kick off on Sunday 19. Food stalls will be opened all the day, starting from 10 am and closing at 8.30 pm: there, visitors will find all typical Friulian dishes such as polenta, frico, local cheeses and salami, “muset e crauti” (pork with sauerkrauts) and the very traditional “lidric cul poc e ûs dûrs” (wild radicchio and hard-boiled eggs). At 2.30pm the local brass band Complesso Bandistico Venzonese will perform along with majorettes. 
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Percoto, Pavia di Udine
​Here, Father's Day celebrations started as early as March 10, culminating with a tight schedule of events on Sunday 19, for the 71st edition of the Fiera di San Giuseppe (Saint Joseph's Fair). The Spring Fair will bring floriculture stalls to Via Aquileia, and vintage cars and Lambrettas' rallies – as well as horse-drawn carriages – will ride through the town streets. At Villa Caiselli's Park there'll be a morning aperitivo with music, wine and food tastings and... a gigantic frico. Wine tastings will go on all day at the Enoteca Tent.

​Laipacco's district in Tricesimo (Udine)
Here, too, celebrations for Saint Joseph started last week. The annual sagra by the local Pro Loco, on Sunday 19, will feature market and food stalls opening in the morning and operating all through the day. Among them, also one selling azaleas to fund Associazione Luca Onlus, a pedriatic association against cancer. The Sunday program will kick off with a walk, the 25th “Cjaminade di San Josef” (Saint Joseph's Walk), with two options: 7 and 14 km, organized by FIASP. In the afternoon, at 4pm presentation of the restoration works in the Church of San Giuseppe, followed by a procession through the streets. Tricesimo's brass band will wrap up celebrations with a musical performance.

It's been an incredible year for Prosecco DOC. The Consortium Prosecco DOC, which safeguard the wines produced across Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia, in 2022 recorded an increase in production's volumes (+1.8%) and values (+11.5%) compared to 2021, for an overall 638.5 million bottles sold and an amount of 3 billion euros. 

And one of the most astonishing data is about global export: 81.2% of Prosecco DOC bottles were exported abroad, while domestic sales amounted to 18.8% (about 120 million bottles). Among the foreign markets, now the U.S. jumped to the 1st place with an increase of 5.8% and a total 134 million bottles of Prosecco wine imported from Italy. They overtook the UK, which has been the best Italian Prosecco consumer in the last years, as they now rank second with 130 million bottles (+3.5%). Germany follows with 46 million bottles (+2.8%), and surprisingly France is Italian Prosecco DOC's fourth importer with a striking increase: +19% in volume than 2021, and +30% in value.

​The next goals for 2023 vintage will be set through the project #roadto2030, which will be presented by Consorzio Prosecco DOC to winemakers and stakeholders in the next few weeks.

Wines, spirits &vinegars making a quarter of Italian food &beverage exports
The positive trend in international exports has been confirmed by recent data disclosed by Osservatorio Federvini, and collected in collaboration with Nomisma and Tradelab. Wines, spirits and vinegars altogether cashed in 17 billion euros. Of these, 9 billion euros come from the export, accounting for 22% of the whole Italian food&beverage industry's exports (almost a quarter). 2,300 firms employ 30,000 people, excluding the satellite activities. 

​Wine exports in particular recorded an extraordinarily positive trend: +51.4% in the UK alone, followed by Japan (+25.1%), Canada (+17.9%), Australia (+17.4%), U.S. (+15.6%) and France (+15%).

The next meeting will be on March 24, with Marzio G. Mian, a Friulian journalist and writer, who'll talk about his latest release “Guerra bianca” (White war), published by Neri Pozza Editore. The book relates the dramatic situation of the Arctic Circle, which has become more and more the centre of the conflict between the US and Russia since Ukraine's invasion one year ago. The shadow of a modern-day neocolonialism seems very likely, as climate change melts the ice, revealing all its hidden treasures: precious raw materials, oil and gas. Mian has been covering news about the Arctic region for several years now, and he's one of the founders of The Arctic Times Project. He's an award-winning correspondent and former deputy editor in chief for the weekly “Io Donna” of Corriere della Sera, one of Italy’s leading newspaper; he realized reportages from at least 48 countries around the world. 

The last event of the month, on March 31, will feature journalist Oscar D’Agostino for a homage to Paolo Maurensig (Gorizia, 26 marzo 1943 – Udine, 29 maggio 2021), a celebrated Friulian author and intellectual. D'Agostino, who's the editor of the cultural column for the daily Messaggero Veneto and the artistic director of the literary festival Lignano Noir, will go through Maurensig's last work, the novel “Il quartetto Razumovsky” (Razumovsky's Quartet), published by Einaudi shortly after his untimely death.

All meetings will start at 6pm. Entry is free and subject to availability, so you'd better reserve a seat by writing an email to: fondazione@abbaziadirosazzo.it.

The events are organized with the support of Vigne Museum Cultural Association, Manzano's Municipality and Banca Intesa SanPaolo.
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Cover Photo: a view from the Abbey of Rosazzo of the surrounding hills and their vineyards (photo by Raffaella Turati)