The renowned Collio hills and their wines at the centre of an international docu series. Last Thursday at the municipal theatre in Cormòns (Gorizia), winemakers from the Consorzio di Tutela Vini Collio (Consortium for the Protection of Collio's wines) enjoyed the preview of “Harvest 2020 – In Vino Humanitas” by Italian filmmaker Maurizio Gigola. It's the first episode of “Wine Odissey”, a TV series conceived as a modern Ulysses' journey around the world, exploring the lands of wines: from countries flaunting thousands-year old wine traditions to the very recent winemaking hotspots. “Harvest 2020” is the first season and was shot during the 2020 grape harvest, a crucial one, just after the first worldwide Covid-19 lockdown: it consists of six episodes filmed in Italy, Greece, Georgia, Germany, France and California. 

The debut is dedicated to Italy and stars the Collio hills and Friuli Venezia Giulia. The video features many local winemakers and focuses also on the territory as a whole, talking about its very peculiar nature and landscapes, its long-standing winemaking tradition, its history and arts. “Wine Odissey” is supported by Friuli's tourist agency PromoTurismoFVG, Ca' del Bosco and Honda. The documentary is a very unexpected chance to put on display the Collio area worldwide, as the series will be showcased at international festivals and then broadcast via TV streaming networks. The next episodes will feature another Italian region, Liguria, and Greece.

Honouring homeland's literature for almost 30 years. The International Literary Award “Latisana per il Nord-Est” (Latisana for the North-East), this year, for its 29th edition will feature 46 works from Friuli Venezia Giulia and all its surrounding area, including nearby regions Trentino-Alto Adige and Veneto, and neighbouring countries such as Slovenia, Austria and Croatia. The contest is meant for writers who were born here or live in this area, or who have set their stories here. 

The genres are varied too: «For the current edition we have many foreign authors, short stories and novels from classical genres such as thriller and science fiction, but also some we could define as “historical” – said Cristina Benussi, professor of Contemporary Italian Literature and president of the award's jury – because they're autobiographical tales of relevant real life events, such as 9/11 or the city of Bologna in 1977 or, even before, the exile from Istria and Dalmatia after World War II. They're the result of an accurate data research, investigating past centuries' issues». 

The award, organized by the public library in Latisana (near Udine) in collaboration with the cultural association Bottega Errante, is open to main and minor publishers as well and, beside a technical jury (whose members are President Benussi and Martina Cicuto, Valentina Berengo, Angelo Floramo, Antonella Sbuelz, Pietro Spirito, Luigi Zannini), there's also a local jury for which any bookworm can now apply on the website: www.premioletterariolatisana.it. The local jury will bestow the award “Premio Territorio Coop Alleanza 3.0”, while the main jury will give the “Premio Narrativa”.

«Over the past years, the Literary Award Latisana per il Nord-Est has been looking up to the Triveneto first, and then to Austria, Slovenia and Croatia thus turning into an international prize – said Martina Cicuto, Latisana's Councillor for Culture – It's a natural evolution, we have it in our own DNA. Our territory, being on the border, is inclined to international relationships and exchanges». That's the essence of the award, open to everybody also thanks to a brand new project: a creative writing masterclass for students at the “Enrico Mattei” High School in Latisana. 
Info and applications for the jury: (+39) 0431.525179-180-181, biblioteca@comune.latisana.ud.it.

A very unusual board game, teaching children Friuli Venezia Giulia's biodiversity. Of course it's not Monopoly, or any other board game you'll be playing during these Christmas holidays... It's called “Equilibrium” and it's a project by Kaleidoscienza, an Udine-based cultural association committed to science popularization and edutainment. They came up with the idea of “Equilibrium” as an unconventional and funny way to approach such a complex issue as biodiversity, and how human actions can affect ecosystems' natural balance (or “equilibrium”).
Their goal is to raise awareness towards nature and the environment. «We first thought of it in 2020, as we wanted to find a creative way to teach children about biodiversity's delicate balances – said Giada Rossi, Kaleidoscienza's president – It's an issue we've been really caring about since our very beginning. That's why we started the DiverSimili project, now running for the fourth year, and it ultimately prompted the development of the board game later called “Equilibrium”». 

Playing with nature
Friuli Venezia Giulia flaunts an extraordinary biodiversity, and it's perfectly reflected in the board game by Kaleidoscienza. There are 5 different natural environments one can play with: mountains, hills, flatlands, lagoons and karstic territory, and 6 different species for each of them such as plants, carnivores, herbivores, insectivores and so on. By rolling the dice and playing cards, in “Equilibrium” players can manage their own resources and choose the best moment to boost their species' beings. The game, suitable for children +6 years old, allows 2 to 4 players for each natural setting and has been developed along with Play Res, a cultural association promoting games' research.

Kaleidoscienza tested the board game on 10 classes and 160 children throughout 2020 and 2021, getting extremely positive feed-backs both from teachers and players. Since then, schools had been asking to keep the game, in order to let students play with it, and that urged the need for more. So the association thought it was time for a larger production, and started a crowdfunding to cover all costs like planning, game designing and prototypes. «We'd like to give more and more children a chance to play with biodiversity – said Giada Rossi – that's why we allowed a double choice: one can buy the game for himself, or else donate it to a school. We hope that, thanks to “Equilibrium”, people who live in Friuli Venezia Giulia will look at their homeland from a different perspective, and people in the rest of Italy will discover how fascinating our region is». Kaleidoscienza already thought about give-aways for people who will support the crowdfunding: from the “Kaleido-kit” for children's scientific experiments, to a gift card for one of Wild Routes' hiking tours in Friuli Venezia Giulia.

For those wishing to give a donation, here's the link to the crowdfunding: https://www.ideaginger.it/progetti/la-biodiversita-del-fvg-in-un-gioco.html. 
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Wine&spirits' sales increased, but so did distribution costs. Federvini, the Italian Federation representing all producers, importers and exporters dealing with wines, spirits and vinegars, last week presented to the public their annual report “Osservatorio Economico” on the state-of-the-art of the Italian alcohol industry at Fondazione Feltrinelli, in Milan. 
The report, to which contributed Nomisma, specialized in market researches, and TradeLab, a business consulting company, showed consumption data for the year 2021, highlighting many positive aspects and yet it didn't overlook hardships, either. 
Overall, consumptions went extremely well, after the lockdown period affected badly the on-trade market for obvious reasons (with bars and restaurants closed, the Horeca or Hospitality sector went downhill). Actually, according to TradeLab researches, during last summer on-trade consumption significantly arose: 34% Italians had their aperitivo outside, at bars or restaurants (compared to 26% in 2020), and more than one million cocktails a day were served. 

Wine's data
Wine performed satisfactorily as to export, especially in China with an astounding 47.2% (27% in Russia and 15% in Canada). In the US sales were slightly below average, but still higher than 2019 (with a 14.7% in 2020 and a 14.4% in 2019). Italy's still the first wine exporter globally as to volumes, though on the value side France is almost invincible, with its wines' skyrocketing prices. 
One out of three Italians buys wine online, but e-commerce still has a small influence on the general off-trade business, if compared to other countries: online sales made a 4% in 2020 in Italy, a 12% in UK and a 10% in France. Sales in large-scale retail trade recorded a positive trend with a +6.1% compared to 2020 (2 billions euros) and Prosecco is the great protagonist here: 21% of all large-scale retail wine sales are spumanti, and 75% of Charmat dry bottles sold are Prosecco's, the king of Italian sparkling white wines. 
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Denis Pantini and Emanuele Di Faustino from Nomisma pointed out that major companies are the driving force both for wines and for spirits. Wine companies whose income exceeds 50 millions euros, make up for 41% of all wine revenues, while companies whose incomes vary from 10 to 50 millions euros contribute with a 38%, and wines labelled as DOP – Denomination of Protected Origin play an important role. As to spirits, the percentage is even bigger: companies with over 50 millions income represent 84% of all revenues, and here aperitivos are dominating. 
These encouraging data don't diminish the fact that companies are facing serious problems due to the pandemic, as Federvini president Micaela Pallini underlined. Now that the industry is recovering from lockdowns, it must endure problems like crazy logistics costs and increasing costs for raw materials too. «An effective support by the State Government to promote companies on international markets of major interest, is needed more than ever, now», said Pallini. 

​Cover photo taken from Federvini official website