The Americans are the foreign customers who drink the most wine in Italy, the Germans drink cheaper wines and red wine is the most popular among foreigners, according to the Foreigners and Wine study on the wine consumption and preferences of foreigners visiting Italian bars and wine cellars.
The Ideeuropee research involved over 130 wine cellars and bars in Turin, Milan, Venice, Florence, Bologna, Rome and Naples. The owners or managers of these places were given a questionnaire on the usages, competence and habits of their
foreign customers.
According to 26.6 percent of the interviewed owners, Americans are the foreign citizens who most often visit wine bars and wine cellars. Some 18 percent of the respondents said their foreign clientele was made mostly of Germans, followed by British with 15.5 percent, Japanese and visitors from the Far East in general with 13.1 percent, French with 8.4 percent,
Russian with six percent, Spanish with 5.3 percent, South American with 3.2 percent, visitors from other countries 3.1
percent and African 1.2 percent.
As regards the quantity of wine consumed, the data mirror the frequency. A total of 37.1 percent of the respondents said North Americans are the foreign customers who consume the most wine, followed by Germans with 23.7 percent, French with 18.2 percent, Russians with 3.3 percent and citizens of other states with 2.3 percent.
The study showed also that most of the customers trust the advice of the bars personnel. This fact underlines the competence of the personnel perceived by the foreign clientele, which was willing to increase their knowledge about wine.
The Americans are those who ask for advice more often (18.1 percent), followed by the French (11.3 percent), the Japanese
(8.3 percent), the British (7.4 percent), the Spanish (7 percent). Russians and Germans, with 2.2 and 5.2 percent respectively, are the most autonomous customers. Ideeuropee underlines that the request for advice represented
a desire to learn rather than ignorance.
The study showed also that the Japanese are the foreign customers best informed about Italian wines (according to 17.5 percent of the respondents), followed by Britons (14.7 percent), Germans (14.1 percent), U.S. citizens (13.3 percent) and the French (11.3 percent). On the other hand it seems that the Russian and Spanish customers would need a refresher course.
As regards the type of wine, the German, French, Japanese and British customers are those who often buy cheaper wines. The minority of foreign customers, French and German in particular, prefer white wines, while red wines are requested mostly by U.S. and Spanish customers.
A total of 35.9 percent of the respondents said foreign customers rarely require prosecco , a kind of white wine from
the Veneto region which has recently registered a boom in its sales abroad. Germans appear to be the only lovers of this type of wine as 21.4 percent of the respondents said German customers ordered prosecco .
