Interview with Dr Enrico Chiavacci, Marketing Director at Marchesi Antinori.

In the time of Covid-19. A distanced interview with Dr Enrico Chiavacci, Marketing Director at Marchesi Antinori. We spoke over the phone and engaged a lengthy discussion.

Enrico Chiavacci has been bound to Marchesi Antinori for more than thirty years. I use the verb bound because, as he affirms, he understands how important his job and this Company have been, and will always be, in his professional and personal life. He has held different positions, working for twenty years in the commercial division and ten in marketing.

“I owe everything to Marchesi Antinori. Here, I have grown up professionally”, he says.

Graduated in Law, with a specialization in Agricultural and Commercial Law, he also collaborates with the most qualified Italian universities, in their Master courses, genuinely aiming to have a positive impact on young students’ future.

– “The question is inevitable: how will the Italian wine system change after 2020, in the market and the distribution, in light of what Covid-19 has instigated?” I ask him.

“Covid-19 has brought about a change that will affect the whole world. We will not go back to work as we used to do. Everything moves faster, and we need to adapt, even though we will try to regain the possibility of eating and drinking out. 

Moreover, the shutdown has pushed towards e-commerce, which, however, had already started to be structured. Amidst Covid-19, e-commerce platforms have become even stronger.

The performance of e-commerce and distribution differs from country to country. In the United States, for example, it is already a well-established system.

We can affirm that the “wine at the right temperature” you can receive at home, in Italy, is at an early startup stage. These market shares will grow and become part of the consumer’s culture”.

– “What are the changes in sales strategies that Italy has adopted – or will need to consider – given the variety of Italian wines and the present circumstances?”

“Even in the wine sector, from 2020, we will be giving more and alternative services, such as online tastings, together with what we already had developed through social media. For example, on Instagram, we will describe the new wines and present them directly online. We will show the bottles. We will present the vintages, as we did for wines like Tignanello on the occasion of the release of the new vintage. We will reserve seats at a distance and our public will taste wines directly at home while following our presentation.

The same is happening for restaurants. They have had to reorganize carrying out delivery and take away services. Even our sector, for the whole of 2020, will have to suspend all the events we normally hold along the year. Everything will be streaming online. Chef food will accompany wine presentations, making the tasting event as “true” as possible. People’s behaviour will also change during convivial situations.

Hospitality will focus on putting people at ease.

After the Covid-19, hotels will have to become safe places, too.

We need to seek alternative solutions. Everyone will have different experiences, and both organizers and suppliers will surely share the higher costs among them.

People thought that the predictions on Covid-19 could be represented in the shape of a V. When reaching the lowest point of the V, the rise would follow straight away. In reality, the letter that most represents the Covid-19 cycle is certainly the letter U, and the rise will be slower. Resilience and restart. After the virus, the start over can be seen just like the letter U. The slow pace of rebuilding trust will be the same in the economy.”

– What are the market trends? What affects the market more, social media, the journalists or the media? In brief, what is the weight of the MEDIA in general? How do they influence choices in the wine market?”

“Social networks weigh on the market and people, just as journalists who write about wine do. The more good scores a wine gets, the more its sales boast.

In social media, opinion leaders who taste wine and approve it are important: a little like a successful person everyone tries to imitate. Do you remember when Mr Agnelli wore the first Tod’s shoes? There! Everyone copied him.

Even the world of wine has its opinion leaders, its wine influencers, such as Paolo Baracchino, Esq, whom you know well, or Robert Parker in America, just to name two, rather distinct, professionals.

The market trends go towards sparkling wines, rosé wines, and aromatic blends; towards wines with lower alcohol content; fruity red wines, with more subtle colours, elegant, rich in finesse, and immediately pleasing.

Wine means conviviality, and, after Covid-19, we will re-establish it. We can compare the knowledge of wine to knowing someone in all life stages: childhood, youth and adulthood; to observing someone over time. Wine DNA is always the same. However, it evolves and the more you are familiar with it, the more you recognise all its potential.

Great passion for wine and a considerable study in the vineyard as in the cellar is essential. This is what adds high quality to the product, together with the territory, the vine and the project.

Wine experts study how to shade the vineyards, whether to orient the vineyards to the northeast or north-west, because of the changes in climate.

Besides, for our wines of the future, we will try to produce more and more elegant wines, rich in finesse and aromas of fruit. Less opulent but as I said earlier, extremely respectful and representative of the territory they come from, of the different blends, and of the project we bring forward.

NICOLETTA ARBUSTI