“An extraordinary showcase for promoting sparkling wines and regional wine tourism routes”
“For the first time in Italy, Campania will be hosting the sparkling wine session of the prestigious Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, offering an extraordinary showcase for promoting our sparkling wines and for tasting more than 1,000 wines from across the globe Governor De Luca and I were strongly in favour of hosting the competition in Campania as it paves the way for thousands of industry players, buyers, journalists and international researchers to gauge the excellence of our regional products and explore our evocative wine tourism routes”, explained the regional councillor for agriculture, Nicola Caputo, at a press conference presenting the 2023 Concours Mondial de Bruxelles. The competition is scheduled to take place in Agerola from 31 May to 4 June at the Principe di Napoli Campus.
“Campania’s long-standing ties with wine and winegrowing make it one of the oldest wine regions in Italy”, stressed Vinopres CEO Quentin Havaux. “We are delighted to be holding the 2023 sparkling wine session in this host region. Campania’s sparkling wine industry deserves international recognition. Our judges are looking forward to discovering these wines made from native grape varieties”.
A cursory glance at the figures confirms the potential of the region’s wine industry, where the number of wineries producing sparkling wine continues to post exponential growth. Campania boasts more than 20,000 hectares under vine and produces in excess of 1 million hectolitres, labelled with one of the region’s 15 DOCs and 4 DOCGs (19 PDOs in total), as well as 10 PGIs. Production of sparkling wine is in the range of 9,500 hectolitres, generating revenue of 8-9 million euros, partly due to the many DOCs and DOCGs dedicated to sparkling wine production.
“Our goal is to transform wine into a genuine testament of the region”, adds Councillor Caputo, “as a vehicle for emotions, traditions and flavours, and as a tool for promoting tourism. In my view, a winery must be a space dedicated to hospitality, and not just wine tasting. Our region has a high level of biodiversity and quality and we must convey these fundamental values in the imagination of visitors if we really aim to be competitive in the global marketplace. We must ensure that consumers choose our products even after they have returned home after a memorable stay in Campania”.
About the competition
The Concours Mondial de Bruxelles is an international competition with over 10,000 wines entered by producers to be tasted and judged by a panel of experts. Our experienced judges taste the wines in the competition with one guiding principle, and that is to single out wines of irreproachable quality, with no bias stemming from the label or an appellation’s prestige. The Concours is one of the most significant international events of its kind.
