(ANSA) - Milan, May 23 - Milan Expo 2015 marks the first time Italian wine has been represented with a pavilion of its own at a world fair.
    The wine pavilion, called Vino - A Taste of Italy, tells the story of the past, present and future of Italian wine, its traditions and its advances.
    It is on show in the food-themed Universal Exposition in Milan, which runs through October 2015. The exhibit has been created by Veronafiere, which for more than 50 years has run the Vinitaly wine trade fair in Verona, and enjoys the support of the agriculture ministry. Italy has a wine-making tradition that reaches back to the Etruscans and ancient Rome, but in recent decades has leapt to the forefront of the global wine and spirits industry. Italy is the world's largest producer of wine after France, and has outpaced champagne in terms of sparkling wine exports to the USA and Great Britain. Sales of Italian bubbly have soared 43% in the USA, 55% in the UK, 46% in China and 20% even in France, according to the Italian farmers' trade group Coldiretti.
    In the pavilion, the past, present and future are each associated with a different language to express the character of the market for Italian wine. The past is told in Italian, the present in English and the future in Chinese. "We are looking to emerging markets, particularly in China and Asia as a whole," said VeronaFiere Managing Director Giovanni Mantovani at the opening of the pavilion in Milan. "In these countries, Italian exports still represents a percentage too low compared to the potential of the sector, so right there you can grow a lot, with taking many actions - not only promotion, but also the development of relationships and new capabilities such as e-commerce".