Vinitaly 2016: Lower ABV wine is a way to stand out for Italian producer La Contessa

By David Gosine

Published: 12 April, 2016

Wine producer La Contessa is looking to stand out from other Italian producers by focusing on producing a high-quality, lower alcohol red wine and is looking to export to the UK market.

Wine producer La Contessa is looking to stand out from other Italian producers by focusing on producing high-quality, a lower alcohol red wine and is looking to export to the UK market.

La Contessa winery is owned by Alessia Berlusconi, who unsuccessfully tried to find lower alcohol red wine that had the structure, acidity, tannins, balance and mouthfeel of a quality red wine. Instead she set out to make a wine that had an alcohol by volume (ABV) of under 10% and '9.9' wine brand was born.

Berlusconi, who is the niece of former Italian prime minster Silvio Berlusconi and was the publisher of a newspaper in Milan, knew with so many established quality wine producers in Italy, she was going to have to do something different. She said: "I knew that I couldn't just say hello, I'm a winemaker now."

The wine is a Marzemino with an alcohol by volume (ABV) of 9.9%. The first vintage was produced in 2011.

"I wanted to make a wine from Marzemino because it has such a polyphenolic structure that is good for quality wines."

Berlusconi made the decision to hold off releasing their first vintage as she and her team wanted to see how the wine developed and evolved in bottle. In 2012 they had a soft launch, but debuted 9.9 last year at VinItaly.

She is now focusing on expanding to other international markets and sees a great opportunity for the wines in the UK. Berlusconi said: "Low alcohol wines are a thing of the future and we want to create a good quality product that has the sensations of real wine." Currently 70% of the wine produced is sold domestically and she is exporting to Switzerland and othe EU markets.

The wine is lighter in style and "is great to be paired with food, particularly seafood." She also see the opportunity among younger drinkers who are drinking lighter and fruitier wines. "The wines are perfect for millennials," she said.

Berlusconi admits that making a wine with a lower ABV is not always an easy sell. She said: "It's not that easy, you are making a effort to change a culture." But none the less she was inspired to make a lower ABV wines because as a mother of three children she wanted her kids to have low alcohol options when they are introduced to wine.

The wine is available in half litre, litre, and magnum formats.

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