Wine as experience: two Italian cases between territory and culture
There is a thread running through some of the most interesting things happening in Italian wine right now. It is not only about volumes or rankings, but about the way a denomination tries to speak more clearly about its territory, and about the way wine is perceived by the people who visit it or choose it. In some cases, the answer comes through experience: not as a decorative frame, but as part of the product’s value.
A clear example is Festival Franciacorta in Cantina, the event that every September sees wineries across the Lombardy denomination open their doors to the public. The point is not simply organised tastings, but a route that brings together producers, landscape, cuisine and culture. Masterclasses, guided visits, dinners, meetings and spread-out installations build a story in which wine is not the only protagonist, but the point of access to a territory that wants to be remembered.
The case also works because it sits within an established positioning. Franciacorta has annual volumes of around 19 million equivalent bottles and maintains a premium profile, with an average retail price that in 2025 stood at 24.45 euros per bottle. These numbers help explain the denomination’s strategy: it is no longer enough to sell quality, it is also necessary to build a coherent image that gives shape to what happens before and after purchase.
When the vineyard returns inside history
A different project, but one driven by a similar logic, is the one underway in Pompeii. The Pompeii Archaeological Park has entered into a partnership with Tenute Capaldo, which includes Feudi di San Gregorio and Basilisco, to restore viticulture within the excavation area. The first harvest of red grapes grown among the ancient domus carried above all symbolic weight, but also something very practical: bringing the vineyard back into a place that, by definition, speaks of memory and cultural layering.
The varieties involved, including Aglianico, Piedirosso and Sciascinoso, point to a Campanian tradition already present in Roman times. The stated goal is to produce wine within the Park before the end of the decade, with a winery under construction and an output of about 30,000 bottles a year, together with a tasting area for visitors. The point is not only the quantity: it is the possibility of using wine as a tool for reading the site, adding another narrative layer to one of the world’s most visited archaeological places.
In this sense, Pompeii suggests an interesting idea: the vineyard not only as agricultural land, but as a cultural object capable of making a long and complex history feel more immediate. It is a perspective well suited to a broad audience, because it brings together research, landscape and cultural tourism without forcing the product into a purely promotional role.
Wine tourism: growing, but not automatically
Alongside these projects, wine tourism appears to be a lively segment still looking for structure. According to data cited by the organisers of FINE Italy, the b2b marketplace for wine tourism held in Riva del Garda, Italy in 2025 saw more than 13 million wine-related tourists and over 20 million associated overnight stays. These figures help explain why the topic is becoming increasingly important in denomination strategies, but they should be read carefully: they point to rising interest, not by themselves to a definitive transformation of the sector.
The hardest step remains the one between a local experience and a tourism product that is easy to recognise. Many Italian realities offer excellent hospitality, but still struggle to turn that quality into formats that foreign buyers, tour operators and international visitors can easily understand. For that reason, the issue is not simply having a beautiful winery to visit, but being able to give continuity to the story by connecting services, territory and distribution.
That is where cases like Franciacorta and Pompeii become especially interesting to read together. Not because they prove a shift across the whole market on their own, but because they show two different ways of moving wine from the level of product to the level of experience: on one side, a denomination working on the relationship between hospitality and identity; on the other, an archaeological site bringing back the vineyard as part of its narrative. In both cases, wine is not just something to choose. It is also something that invites people to arrive, stay and understand.
