The success story of Lugana writes a new happy ending with a record breaking 2016, that president of Consortium Luca Formentini does not hesitate to call “our absolute best year.” It’s all reflected in the numbers: a vineyard of 1675 hectares (they were 1500 in 2015), a production reaching over 14 million bottles (+ 10%), a global business estimated at around 150 million Euros (compared to 135 the previous year ). All while the Turbiana grape prices have touched 200 euro per quintal and a hectare of farmland in the area has reached values close to 300 thousand euro.
But this growth represents now an established trend: in fact, during the last 10 years the production of Lugana has practically doubled, without any extension of the original boundaries of the Doc, as Formentini is rightly keen to point out at every opportunity.
“We had never reached such goals before – says the president -. And never our wine had won awards so significant especially in the international arena, with exports now representing the 70% of our sale, increasing both in established markets such as Germany and in countries like the US, where we have organized a ten-year promotional”.
And as we approach the fiftieth anniversary of the DOC (the first to be approved in Lombardy in 1967), for the immediate future, the consortium renews is challenge against TAV, the high speed trains line project which in the near future could interest the Lugana area.
“An intervention so aggressive in a so fragile area now seems a bit like a suicide – concludes Formentini-. We remain convinced that we can and must intervene on the project and change the path: for this we will write a letter to the Minister Delrio asking him to listen to our arguments. “
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