Italian wineOwine start-up promotes small producers

(AGI) Rome, Mar 2 - Great wines produced by small vineyards. This is the key message of 'wineOwine', an Italian start-up which has revealed to Italians the treasures of craft wineries. Two young men from Abbruzzi, Federico De Cerchio and Eros Durante, created the venture. De Cerchio now recalls, in an interview with AGI: "We were having dinner, and I had brought some excellent Chianti, bought in a well-established vineyard, when Eros asked me where he could purchase it. And that was how we got the idea of promoting wineries that produce excellent wines, in limited volumes." In 18 months. this start-up has reached out to 100,000 Italian registered users and sold 30,000 bottles last year. "We select the best Italian artisanal products. Every week, wineOwine suggests a wine-maker, selected by a team of enologists. We also offer a permanent collection, with a selection of those wines most appreciated by users. Bottle prices range from 8 to 80 euros. They are all top quality wines, unique, with a limited number of bottles produced - 5,000 to 10,000 a year - which will bring into your home a piece of the history of local wine production," added De Cerchio. Piedmont, Tuscany and Abbruzzi are among the most appreciated regions, "but we are now trying to promote less known productions, like the ones from Calabria." The venture has been successful in Italy, supported by several investors, and it will now reach out to northern European countries. "We are currently analysing markets," explained De Cerchio. 2015 has been a 'golden year' for Italian wine, both in terms of quantity and quality. Assoenologi has released figures which show Italian production of wine and must as 47.6 million hectolitres, a 13 percent rise compared to 2014 and 4 percent more than the past 10 years' average. There is now top quality production, with 'peaks of excellence' across the nation, bringing an export boom with figures rising from 2.387 billion to 2.542 billion euros - a 6.5 percent increase. (AGI). .