Yesterday, Bardolino producer Matilde Poggi of Le Fraghe (left) was elected as the new president of the FIVI, the Federazione Italiana Vignaioli Indipendenti (Italian Federation of Independent Grape Growers).

(Image via FIVI.)

Leonildo Pieropan and Walter Massa are the new vice-presidents.

And Gianmario Cerutti is the new Councillor Delegate for Institutional Affairs.

(Source: Intravino.)

With great interest, I followed the voting yesterday in Colorno (Parma Province, Emilia-Romagna) via the Twitter (click link for the thread).

Since its founding in 2008, the number of federation members has surpassed 600. Those familiar with the world of Italian wine will immediately recognize some of the iconic winemakers who have joined the group: Les Crêtes, Grosjean, Ettore Germano, Paolo Scavino, Foradori, Maso Poli, Venica, Vie de Romans, Bucci, Pepe…

Its mission, according to its website, is “to defend the moral, technical, socio-economic, and administrative interests of its members.”

And as its power as an Italian wine industry lobby has grown, so has its influence. The major players of Italian wine can no longer ignore its push to give small producers greater representation within bottling consortia, where, in most cases, representation is based on volume of wine produced. In the FIVI, each members vote carries equal weight.

Stefano Casali (Muralia)
Giulia Cavalleri (Cavalleri)
Gianmario Cerutti (Cerruti)
Lorenzo Cesconi (Cesconi)
Costantino Charrère (Les Cretes)
Ettore Ciancico (La Salceta)
Luca Ferraro (Bele Casel)
Celestino Gaspari (Zymè)
Armin Kobler (Weinhof Kobler)
Walter Massa (Vigneti Massa)
Saverio Petrilli (Tenuta di Valgiano)
Leonildo Pieropan (Pieropan)
Matilde Poggi (Le Fraghe)
Buttafuoco Storico Vercesi Marco (Marco Vercesi)
Guido Zampaglione (Tenuta Grillo)

(Source: Luca Ferraro’s Facebook.)

In other news…

Above: Gianni (left) and Domenico Zonin, two generations of one of the most powerful families in Italian wine (image via Francesco Zonin’s Flickr).

Yesterday, as I was following developments in Colorno via the Twitter and Facebook, I received an email press release from Casa Vinicola Zonin (one of the largest winery groups in Italy and the world).

The information was not included in the message body. Instead, it was contained in an attached file, 1.1 megabytes in size.

Strangely, despite its size, this is all that it reported (brackets mine):

“Domenico Zonin elected President of Unione Italiana Vini[.]”

“On July, 9th Domenico Zonin, Vicepresident of Casa Vinicola Zonin was elected President of Unione Italiana Vini (UIV) [Italian Wine Union], with a mandate valid until 2016.”

“Unione Italiana Vini is the most ancient and most representative Association of wine-growing Italian enterprises. Created in 1895, today its associated companies are about 500 and cover 70% of the value of the sector’s Italian export. Trade union, information, promotion in Italy and abroad, laboratories have always been UIV’s tools in support of the wineries since more than a century.”