The Asti Consortium today?
The Consortium today represents over 100 million bottles produced annually, between Asti Spumante and Moscato d’Asti, therefore a very important production that concerns an area of Piedmont, that of the areas of Asti, Cuneo and Alessandria where over 3,300 producers produce grapes. Moscato, essential for the production of Asti spumante and Moscato d’Asti.
What are the consumption trends?
Asti spumante and Moscato d’Asti abroad have an even wider perception than what is, let’s say, the recent Italian trend, even if we must say that with the new types recently introduced by the specification there is a possibility of combining wines also not purely with sweet residual sugar such as Asti Spumante, since now Asti Spumante can also be produced in the types dry, extradry, brut, extrabrut, there is however a tendency abroad to combine it with a large number of courses or in any case a consumption even outside the context of a food-wine combination. Initially it is already interpreted as a wine for the whole meal but also and above all a moment to celebrate important moments and anniversaries.
What are the differences between Asti Spumante and Moscato d’Asti?
Asti spumante stands out for being above all a sparkling wine, therefore it represents a very consistent bubble which is required by the production disciplinary to be at least 3.5 bar pressure. So it means a real sparkling wine so much so that it needs a cork that has an airtight seal or rather a cage closure so that the pressure does not make the bottle first.
Moscato d’Asti, on the other hand, is a wine with a much lower pressure in terms of CO2, so it cannot be defined as a sparkling wine but as a sparkling wine and in this case, a flat screw or cork bottle cap is sufficient to close it. So the first distinction is the one that can certainly be made with respect to the type of bottle closure.
What are the prospects for the near future?
The prospects are to continue promotional activities which in these two years have unfortunately suffered a significant slowdown due to the situation linked to Covid, however we have many initiatives that mainly concern Asia, especially China where we have a three-year project that we do not see. time to start just to promote our companies. As soon as possible, we will be present with initiatives on the Chinese market.