It has become a tradition here at Vero: coming towards end of year we review what you, our readers, found most captivating over the past year, in particular the blog articles we write, as well as news that we publish with the Vero newsletter which goes out regularly to thousands of consumers, journalists. and wine and food trade professionals around the US. With our newsletter and articles, we like to shake things up in wine, giving different perspectives, like this article on Rose Wine, as well as an outlet for discovery, like getting to know a lesser known small Barolo wine producer.

Being a wine & food importer, our success is partly measured by how well we forecast: almost any importer imports their products in bulk, and, while we sometimes have pre-orders from clients, usually we go “by the seat of our pants” to decide what to import in and how much. Therefore, data points that show us what people care about the most is important to predict what products will be in demand in the coming months.

We feel that we have a unique vantage point to share insights into the main channels and ‘tiers’ of the wine & specialty foods industry, since our newsletter goes out to each channel which we segment accordingly, giving us insight into each of you, no matter how you relate to the wine industry. So, without further ado, let’s see what interested you most in 2023.

Two Overall Trends Which Captivated Your Attention

How Wine is Farmed

Our article which brought the debate around biodynamic wine and biodynamic farming to the forefront was hands down the topic that captured the most interest across our readership, from wine industry players, mainly distributors, wine stores and restaurants, to wine media and, finally, to wine loving consumers across America. Our article “What is Biodynamic Wine, Anyway?” seemed to push a lot of buttons for our readers, which is why it is considered our most popular article in 2023. Why is that so?

As we had noted earlier this year, when we looked back at previous wine industry forecasts and observed the current state of the wine industry, there is an increasing divergence in the wine industry; the wine market is divided into 2 buckets across the board, from the wine trade down to the consumer, between:

• those that are very price conscious and prefer a “familiar” wine, ranging from type to brand versus

• those that instead seek something authentic and different.

It is the latter group of wine drinkers and wine buyers that is growing along with alternative wines that fall into this category: Think organic wine, biodynamic wine, orange wine, pet nat wine, natural wine, new grapes to discover, and with many other descriptors out there.

Generally, these are wines which are farmed and made with a lot of thought and care, especially in the context of small producers, which is our specialty. These are winegrowers that are farming their own land and making farm crafted creations. And guess whose wines or olive oil shows up on their dinner tables: their own, of course!

It is a natural consequence then that small wineries take a minimal intervention approach to farming and winemaking. Their ancestors were used to treating their entire farm as a homestead providing for their whole family, and these producers aspire to leave their land in better shape for future generations. Hence, biodynamic farming comes naturally to small producers - they are winegrowers who consider their vineyards as one part of an entire ecosystem which sustains their land.

A Continued Yearning For Discovery & Experiences

When we started Vero, focusing on wines and olive oils that are new to the US market, we knew we couldn’t just twiddle our thumbs and wait for some wine lover and foodie to come across a grape they never heard of, a place they never heard of or unknown winery. We knew we had to get the word out in a proactive way.

Thanks in part to the Covid lockdowns forcing us to meet up on Zoom, we started our VeroTalks, virtual meet and greets with Vero Producers live from their vineyards and wineries. Our VeroTalks have been a favorite with many of our clients and followers who are wine explorers across the US, since it gives them a chance to learn, chat and taste with winemakers and other wine experts, although, at the start of 2023 we were starting to think that maybe people had enough with virtual events and experiences?… Turns out we were wrong!

Our VeroTalk with Austrian natural wine grower Michi Lorenz and follow-on story about him, his family and wines were a hit with wine trade, wine journalists, and especially, with wine loving consumers. It shows that the yearning to learn and discover new types of wines and get to know the people behind the scenes who are growing and making the wine is still a huge interest, even if it is in front of a laptop or phone.

And it’s not just interest in wine that is attracting attention across all players and buyers in the wine industry. It’s also travel, especially getting the inside look into a place from a local’s perspective. Our piece on what Venetians do in Venice was another overall favorite article, even among wine professionals and journalists. Who would think that an audience of wine enthusiasts would be so drawn to an article about Venice?… It goes to show that an opportunity to escape to an exotic place, even virtually or while you are at home or in your office, is a desire many of us seem to have.

Consumers Can Never Get Enough of These…

This traffic jam in Venice was one of our top posts on Instagram this year.

Recipes!

In fact, guess what the top trending Food & Beverage search term on google in 2023 was: Recipe.

With our own chef on staff, our blog is a great source of authentic, interesting recipes. Last year in our countdown of readers’ favorite blog articles from 2022 recipes stood out with tips and tricks to make a really good risotto making it to the top. In the spring this year, when delicious fresh vegetables were plentiful and wine lovers started to crave white wine with the warmer weather, we came out with our recipe for an authentic Pasta Primavera recipe which was a big hit with our wine loving and foodie consumer readers. Remember that we publish recipes all year long, and we have some great wintertime ones, like this one for homemade broth, which is a hand-me-down old broth recipe from a real Italian nonna. Be sure to regularly check our blog for recipe ideas!

Women Winemakers With Fascinating Stories

Journalists were captivated by the story of Irene Balim, a Ukrainian woman who migrated to Italy in the late 90s during the economic crisis in Urkaine. Today she leads up an organic winery, Frignano, growing and making natural wines and Pet Nat wine in the province of Modena Italy, the Lambrusco wines capital of the world.

While our criteria in seeking new wine producers is focused on criteria which excludes sex, race, etc., we wholeheartedly embrace women winemakers as well as all farmer-artisans with authentic motives and passion which drive them to do what they do.

We are particularly excited to have Frignano as part of the Vero family of producers since besides making organic wine and natural wine, they stand out in Lambrusco wine country by not making even one charmat method, or tank method, Italian wine sparkling. Instead all of their sparkling wines are refermented in the bottle and made either as an unfiltered Pet Nat method wine or as a champagne style wine. Another bonus is Irene’s commitment to reviving hyper local grapes, like Uva Tosca which is used to create this crisp Pet Nat wine that tastes like cranberry juice made as a sparkling wine!

The Conundrum of Wine Ratings

When our founder, Sheila Donohue, was researching the US wine market prior to starting Vero, all importers and wine sales reps she spoke with said that all of her imported wines needed to have a wine rating of 90 plus in order to sell them in the US. Since we specialize in premium small production wines, having to send sample bottles around to many wine review companies does not make a whole lot of financial sense, especially when there are scarce quantities of current vintages.

Nevertheless, we did score some fantastic recognition this year in VinePair’s ‘Best of’ Lists which reviews the best wines of the year by category.

Besides getting

• an orange wine on VinePair’s 15 Best Orange Wines for 2023 list;

• and 2 sweet wines on VinePair’s list of 13 of the Best Sweet Wines for 2023 including a Brachetto d’Acqui an aromatic sweet red sparkling wine and an Italian dessert wine, Picolit, made by women winemakers, with the highest rating at 96 points;

• Col del Balt’s Prosecco made it to VinePair’s 20 Best Proseccos for 2023 with the highest rating in the list. With Prosecco wine sparkling keeping its popular streak in 2023, this Vero news garnered the attention of our distributors, wine stories and restaurant readers.

For small family wine producers that are new or undiscovered in the US market and go up against well established wine brands and/or large wineries and scoring even better than them on these best wine lists, these achievements certainly should be attention getting, no? Certainly if favorable wine reviews fall in our lap, we gladly embrace them, even if our business model does not rely on high ratings in order to sell our wines. What counts most is word of mouth.

Interestingly though, that this news attracted mostly those in the industry that sell wine. Meanwhile the real wine buyers, aka consumers, seemed a bit unphased by this great achievement. Perhaps it is because of the abundance of wine critics and businesses that have cropped up over the last 20 years so to hand out 90+ scores to wines?… We asked Pamela Busch, Founder & Executive Director of The Vinguard what she thought about wine ratings. “Ratings don’t mean anything to the under 40 crowd, who don’t even know who Robert Parker is. What’s most important is for a wine to be really good, to have ‘the right price,’ and a compelling story.”

What Next?

First thing to do is to subscribe to the Vero newsletter which is becoming the talk of the wine (and olive oil) industry.

Next is to try out our wines and olive oils! As mentioned, they are alternative and not for those seeking your ordinary go-to wines. We’re for the wine and food adventurers who love discovery, fun experiences and learning more about food and wine,

We sell to both businesses and consumers across the US:

• We are enlarging our network of distributors around the country. Reach out to us if you are interested in distributing our wines.

• We sell to wine stores and restaurants in certain states - contact us if you would like more info.

• We do corporate gifts and sommelier guided wine tastings. Email us and we’ll tailor unique and sustainable corporate gift ideas.

• If our farm crafted wines and olive oils are not in your local shop or restaurant buy wine online here where we ship to most states.

• We also have an award winning wine club for true wine explorers seeking to continually discover unique, sustainable and authentic small production wines they never had.

Best Wine of 2023

Some Women-Made Wines to Discover

Some Biodynamic Wines to Discover