Wine Odyssey - Recent notes
Neville Blech finds out the difference between a wine tasting in the U.K. and in
Italy.
Wine tasting - Italian Style
Professional wine tasting in the UK is, by and large, a sombre affair, whilst consumer
tastings usually end up with a number of participants being decanted into the street
in something of a quiet drunken stupor.
In Italy, it's a bit different, as can be seen from this video of the recent "Terroirvino"
event in Genoa. This is an event which is designed to be a meeting between wine,
people and the web and is the brainchild of Filippo Ronco, a disillusioned defence
lawyer who gave up the confines of law practice for his first loves of fast motor
bikes, the guitar and........wine! In June 2005 he organised his first event - "TigullioVino.it"
in Genoa, which was a great success. It has become an annual event ever since with
expanding horizons and the 2010 event, which is the third that I have visited, was
no exception.
Promoted in conjunction with VinoClic - an Italian wine web forum, it brought together
a number of both professional and amateur wine enthusiasts for a two-day shindig
of Bacchanalia. It started on Sunday, June 6 with the Vinix Unplugged "Unconference"
- an all day networking session between wine producers, merchants, bloggers and press,
where various people spoke for a few minutes about their pet theme and the floor
was then thrown open to debate and discussion. It started about 10 a.m and didn't
finish until nearly 7 p.m. (Italians do like to talk a lot) with just a half an hour
break in the middle for some promotional food and drink, which did make it a bit
tedious towards the end. Perhaps next year, Mr Ronco could consider cutting the time
on this from 9 hours to 5.
After a short break, we were bussed to the Unplugged dinner, held at the Villa Spinola,
a dedicated function room facility à la Connaught Rooms in London, but with far better
quality grub. As we were arriving, the Jury was in its final deliberation of the
Garage Wine Contest - a contest to find the best amateur wine producer in Italy.
Fortunately for us, we were placed at the same table as the winner, Pietro Repetto,
a marketeer in nanotechnology, whose fastidious approach, no doubt rubbing off from
his job, enabled him to produce a silky smooth wine from the Cortese grape in Piedmont.
Since he is a non-registered amateur producer, he's not allowed to give it any appellation,
but it would knock the majority of Gavis into a cocked hat!
The next day was the day of the tasting proper - a raucous conglomeration of exhibits
from 150 producers from all over Italy with a few from Slovenia thrown in to boot.
This gave me the opportunity not only to renew acquaintances and update some of the
Italian producers entries for the next edition of Wine Behind The Label, but also
to discover a number of new producers who will find themselves with a full entry
as well. Bacchanalians will have received these updates and new entries with this
month's changes to the website and I hope that you will find them of interest. If
you are not a Bacchanalian, please do join up to get my tasting notes on the best
of the new.
All in all, this is a fun event and well worth a visit if you like Italian wines.
Fillipo Ronco - founder of “Terroir Vino”
