IN BREVE
- Gian Marco Centinaio criticizes the use of public money for the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, highlighting a lack of clear returns for wineries and local territories.
- The Winemag investigation reveals over one million euros spent by Calabria, Campania, Sardinia, and Sicily on the competition.
- According to the Senate Vice President, it is essential for the wine sector to speak more simply to attract younger generations, who prefer beer and spirits.
- The Belgian private company Vinopres benefits from public funds for the organization of the competition, raising questions.
“Public money spent without logic and without planning.” This is how Gian Marco Centinaio comments on the Winemag investigation into the public funds used by four Italian regions to organize local sessions of the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles (CMB) wine competition. The Vice President of the Senate, a wine producer with his family in Oltrepò Pavese, does not mince words.
“I continue to think that events like these do not serve the wine industry. What are the returns for the wineries? What are the returns for the territories? And what are the returns for the sector? Do they serve to promote conscious consumption? Or to improve the sector’s appeal? The new generations don’t drink wine simply because it is a product far removed from their way of thinking: too complicated and too self-referential.”
“New generations,” Centinaio continues, “drink beer or spirits. When we understand that the sector must ‘get off its pedestal’ and speak more simply, perhaps we will have the new generations as interlocutors as well.”
CONCOURS MONDIAL DE BRUXELLES: THE WINEMAG INVESTIGATION
The investigation by WineMag.it outlines for the first time the total amount of public funds allocated to five Italian editions of the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles. Over one million euros provided by four Regions—Calabria, Campania, Sardinia, and Sicily—to cover hospitality, logistics, organization, and communication costs. A figure set to rise from the current approximately 1.35 million, with the rosé session scheduled in Cirò—CMB back in Calabria, then—from March 27 to 29, 2026.
The reconstructed expenditure items show a fragmented but substantially consistent picture: public contributions destined for the activities of the competition’s organizing company, the Belgian Vinopres. A private entity, outside the aegis of the OIV, the International Organisation of Vine and Wine. For Sardinia alone, in 2024, the Region committed approximately €300,000. In Sicily, between 2022 and 2025, the sums exceed €350,000 in total. Meanwhile, Campania set aside €88,388.50 for the structure dedicated to hosting the tasters. Calabria also put approximately €300,000 on the table for the 2022 edition.
The model emerging from the investigation raises questions about the destination of public money. On one hand, there is the narrative of territorial promotion, often used to justify investment in international events. On the other, the evidence of public funds that end up benefiting a private entity tasked with organizing a touring competition. This is an issue that runs through Italian wine policy and opens a broader debate on the transparency, effectiveness, and real value of initiatives presented as international showcases for regional denominations.
