Vineyards Magazine

Last Sunday, November 4th at the beautiful Villa dei Vescovi in Luvigliano in the province of Padua the Consorzio Vini Colli Euganei celebrated his forty years of activity.

On the occasion of the celebration of forty years of activity of the Consorzio dei Vini Colli Euganei, we interviewed the President of the Consorzio Antonio Dal Santo.

Q.-Dear Director what are the main steps that have characterized the growth of the consortium towards a better quality?
A.- The fact that we put together a statement of intent 40 years ago, and that we believed in the territory and oenological potential of the same.We realized the first achievements with the red wines, in terms of quality in the mid of the eighties.

From there we started the first attempt to identify the  good plots and we carried out a careful control of yields, in order to produce red wines.

These early projects were initially followed by a limited number of wineries, but by the early 90s, the first results seemed very flattering. In 1994 we laid a milestone with the upgrade of the rules and the introduction of Fior d’Arancio and Serprino as recognized grape sorts.
From there we started an in-depth research on white wines. At the beginning of 2000 we started to find out the different parcels for  merlot, cabernet franc and  Moscato Bianco. And then, we continued with the Moscato Giallo and Cabernet Sauvignon. Another milestone and key technical tool for our members was the recognition of the analysis laboratory (2000).

At this point, we also paid attention to the training of our young farmers who yet had brushed up their good basic education, thanks to many educational and technical initiatives of our wine association. All this, combined with a careful choice of  grape sorts suitable for each  individual plot of land, had as consequence for the Euganean Hills, a significant improvement in quality over the entire range of products; a goal that has been reached by a numerous winemakers  giving a determined impression of the improvement of the overall quality of our wines.

Q.- What steps have been made to improve the marketing of your products in Italy and abroad?

A.-  At first, we took care of the presentations and  events  about wine on a  local level. Afterwards, mainly thanks to the support of the Chamber of Commerce, and the collaboration with the Uvive ( Unione Consorzi Vini Veneti D.O.C.) we participated to fairs and major events nationally and internationally.

About 10 years ago, we decided to emphasize the communication of our Consorzio, solely based on our flagship: Fior d’Arancio, which became DOCG in 2011.

We have created a bottle and a general label for the whole wine region, which aimed to represent the excellence and uniqueness of this product, but also which  created a unique image and caused the unification of all the various small and large producers of the Euganean Hills.

Another step  was the creation, six years ago, of an internal structure “Enoteca consortile”   into the wine association located in  Montegrotto Terme,  which represents both a permanent business card in the territory and a center for the organization of events and promotion of our products.

Q.- Plans for the future?
A.- The ambition for the coming years is to bring the Euganean hills to cross new boundaries. Obtaining the DOCG in this regard has been very useful; now we have to carry on the work we started by giving even a greater impact and effectiveness of our promotional program.

We will also focus even more on the specificity and uniqueness of some of our products. Due to strong recent commercial successes that have sustained sales (particularly  for  the “fior d’arancio del Serprino” and  the “ CE rosso”), and due to the growing importance of wine tourism in all Italian wine regions, we would like to make of wine a key point for collaboration between all economical and territorial stakeholders.