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ildolcevino
The Italian wine industry boasts some impressive figures: Italy counts 340,000 wine
producers, a yearly output of 50 million of hectoliters and exports worth € 5.5 billion.
Wine is one of Italy’s most iconic and recognized products worldwide. It is a legacy of centuries of know-how and craftsmanship, its richness deriving from a
unique climate variety, its charm embedded in a breathtaking landscape teeming with
history, culture and heritage.
This uniqueness needs to be properly communicated to open new markets and to
protect the Italian products’ value against other emerging wine producing countries.
Thus, there is an emerging need to stimulate the demand of Italian wines by training
people passionate about Italy and Italian wines to convey these values. In turn, this will
also promote Italy and wine producing regions as touristic destinations. This is why the Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IICCI) has identified
“wine” as a key sector to address specific objectives and targets planned within the
worldwide network of Make It Sustainable Ambassador.
The Overall Objective To increase the market share of Italian wine in India by 50% in three years (2017-2020) by
creating an eco-system in India able to facilitate the promotion of Italian wine
(particularly those wine produced according to the sustainability principles).
The Strategy
To this end, the IICCI is setting-up a network of Italics Wine Clubs (IWCs) in Indian cities, a
community of people (the Italics) who have a passion and/or a professional interest
towards both learning about Italy and its wine culture and promoting its values. This community will then become a natural target for: - Italian Wine Producers, to increase the sales of wine through a better informed
consumers base, as the community will facilitate their penetration of the Indian
market and increase their brand awareness.
- Italian Regions, to propose specific enogastronomic touristic packages in wine
producing areas.
- The activities of the Italics Wine Club will be closely connected with the “Alfiere Italico –
Wine” certification scheme for persons, jointly promoted by Assocamerestero and ICMQ
Istituto.
The Activities
The IWCs will organize the following activities and initiatives for its individual members: Training Courses – Angels of Italian Wine in India 1. Training courses for experts of Italian wines at different levels (Cultore, Mentore,
Maestro certification). The target of the training courses will include importers,
retailers, HoReCa professionals, journalists, students, people passionate and
enthusiast about Italy and Italian Wines. Organized in different Indian cities, the courses will prepare the attendants to the
examination for the Alfiere Italico certification scheme, promoted and owned by
Assocamerestero - ICMQ Istituto (Alfiere Italico scheme owners). Italian Region-specific events 2. The IWCs will become a platform to support Italian Regions, Consortia and single
producers to organize promotional events such as wine and food tasting of producs
from specific Italian Regions will be accompanied by cultural initiatives such as movie
projections, art/photographic exhibitions, concerts, literary talks and lectures etc etc Wine Tours in Italy 3. Every Italian Wine Club will periodically organize Wine Tours to Italy. This type of
tourism will help Indian people to know the beauty of territories and culture related
to wine (e.g. Franciacorta, Valdobbiadene, Chianti, Langhe, etc.), besides the
traditional and main Italian touristic destinations.
“Alfiere Italico – Wine” the worldwide framework
The IICCI strategy in the wine industry is based on an innovative initiative
jointly promoted by Assocamerstero and ICMQ Istituto: the certification
scheme for persons “Alfiere Italico - wine”.
Certification of Persons is a means of providing assurance that a person attending a
training course meets the requirements of a certification scheme. Confidence in the
respective certification schemes is achieved by means of a globally accepted process of
assessment, subsequent surveillance and periodic re-assessments of the competence of
certified person.
Alfiere Italico aims at attesting the competence of professional Italian Wine Promoters by
combining the knowledge of the product and the ability of presenting what is “beyond a
bottle”: Italy’s territories, history, culture, values.
The pillars of the certification scheme are the following:
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An Italian Institution (the network of 76 Italian Chambers of Commerce in the
World) to promote and market the scheme
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A set of competences laid down in Italy by Italian Stakeholders in the Wine Industry
(manufacturers, sommeliers, academia, operators, institutions)
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A certification process compliant with an International standard (ISO 17024)
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A recognized third party body (ICMQ Institute) certifying persons
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No conflict of interest: whoever will handle training courses (the CCIE) will not
certify and vice-versa
The first step: the Angels of Italian Wine in India The first initiative of the IICCI has been the recent launch in Mumbai of the Awareness
Program for the project “Angels of Italian Wine in India – Training Programs for Experts of
Italian Wine Culture”.
The first Awareness Program “Italian Wine Angel” achieved the following results: - 25 participants: representatives from hotels and restaurants, magazines, wine
importers, retailers, people passionate about Italy
- Outstanding faculties (Subash Arora is an internationally recognized expert in
Italian wine)
- Excellent support provided by ENIT (Italian Tourism Agency), Trident – Oberoi
(IICCI sponsor of this initiative) and Aspri Spirits and Kiara Wines (wine importers
and distributors in India)
- Excellent feedback from participants.
The Awareness Course program has confirmed the growing interest for an international
community of recognized professionals in promoting products along with the uniqueness
of Italian Culture, suitably trained by an Italian institution abroad: the Indo Italian Chamber
of Commerce and Industry.
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