A Unique Group of Small, Family-run Italian Wineries Launch Wine-ICons: The Wine Consortium Redefined

Wineries of Italy Consortium, Wine-ICons, launched in the early summer of 2014 is redefining what it means to be a wine consortium. Unlike the traditional wine consortiums made up of producers that only promote wines of a certain region, Wine ICons brings together small, family-run wineries from all over Italy making wines with two very simple goals: help tell their story and introduce these wonderful and unique wines to people around the world.
 
THE IDEA

The idea behind Wine-ICons originated a year ago when, Marcello Miali of Cantine Miali in Puglia, Jacopo Di Battista of Querceto di Castellina in Tuscany and Davide Castagnoli of Cantina Braschi from Romagna, traveled to Los Angeles for a tradeshow. The three producers talked about the challenges of running a winery and wanting to do something to help, from one side, small Italian producers trying to enter new markets without compromising their own roots and traditions, and on the other, giving people around the world the opportunity to experience honest and real Italian wines. Mr. Miali, also the brand manager for Wine-ICons, says the concept is simple, “Being able to leverage the expertise and experience of the other members is a main benefit of being part of Wine ICons, which will become even more significant as we grow and ideally lead to more  people drinking Italian wines with true and authentic character. We have to work together, not fight each other”.
 
Shortly after the trip, Gabriele Marinig of Colli di Poianis, a family-owned winery in Friuli, joined the founding members.
 
Eight wineries now make up Wine-ICons, each with a focus on the indigenous grapes of their area and those best suited for their terroir. The Consortium’s strategy is to offer different wines from producers all over Italy with one winery from each wine region.

The Wine-ICons belief is that by bringing out the distinct qualities of each region and each grape you can discover the real essence of Italian winemaking, an experience the group wants to share with wine enthusiasts.
 
Organizing tastings, wine-dinners and seminars, Wine ICons also strives to give wine lovers the opportunity to meet the people and tell the stories behind the wines.
 
THE DISTRIBUTION

Wine Icons wines are already available in many key markets in USA (NY, NJ, CA, IL, NC, RI, MA). Despite their initial success, Mr. Miali says “We know we’re not going to get rich from this but that’s not the point. We want to work with and support great like-minded, smaller producers and have more of our bottles being opened up and enjoyed by wine lovers around the world.” Cheers to that.
 
For more information, please visit the Wine ICons website ( WINE-ICONS.COM ) .

Wine ICons is also on Facebook (fb.com/wineicons) and Instagram (@wine_icons) 

Contact Information

Marcello Miali

Brand Manager

Wineries of Italy Consortium

marcello@wine-icons.com