Until just a few years back, come early December I’d begin counting down the days until Christmas as I imagined all the great gifts that awaited me. The anticipation has faded in correlation with a drop off in gifts, both in quantity and quality (the abyss was touched last year with the wife giving me a pair of slippers, I’m not sure what that says about the wife or me, but it feels worrying on so many levels).
So I won’t be counting down to Christmas this year (also because feigning delight at my gifts is getting progressively harder), but not too far away there is an event to look forward to – the mother of all Italian wine tastings. Mark your calendar, 24 March 2012, and if you are the compulsive type and want to know exactly far away that is, somebody has you covered (last I looked we’ve got only 114 days, 11 hours, 50 minutes and 17 seconds to wait).
The event is being organized by Wine Spectator and Vinitaly, the annual trade fair in Verona dedicated to Italian wine. The tasting will be held the day before the four-day fair, which has become an event of epic proportions where people in the industry coalesce to buy and sell bottles of every imaginable grape-derived liquid produced on the peninsula. Last year more than 150,000 buyers, distributors, and restaurant and bar owners descended on the stands of 4,000 producers. The general public also gets a chance to walk the halls though this is mostly for industry folks.
At the tasting – called Finest Italian Wines, 100 Great Producers – the crème della crème of Italian producers will offer up a wine of their choosing. The list of participants is nothing short of spectacular: Castello Banfi, Feudi di San Gregorio, Gaja, Livio Felluga, Marchesi de’ Frescobaldi, Siro Pacenti, Tenuta dell’Ornellaia, Tenuta San Guido, Umani Ronchi, and so on. Wine Spectator, specifically their senior editor and tasting director Bruce Sanderson along with two of his colleagues, put together the list with the idea of giving a large geographic cross section of Italy’s best producers.
“There is so much diversity in Italy, so many grape varietals, that we wanted to find a way to showcase that,” Sanderson said on Monday at the event presentation in Milan. “It’s a great chance for small producers to show what they are capable of.”
Only 500 non-industry people will get to take part in the tasting with tickets set to be sold online. No word yet on price or when exactly they will available, but keep an eye on the Vinitaly website for details.
Italian wine sales are doing very well despite the tough economic times, or perhaps because of it. Exports to the United States rose 16% by volume in the first eight months of the year compared with the same period in 2010, according to Italian statistics institute ISTAT. In that period the value of wine sold jumped 18 percent to 604 million euros. Total exports were 2.7 billion euros, a 14 percent increase in value.
Back to my slippers from last Christmas, has anybody gotten a worse gift than that from their significant other? Do let me know so we can compare gifts on December 26th and commiserate.
I will be in Verona for Vinitaly but don’t think I’ll be going… The partial list includes many vary obvious names. Whether they are the best or not is something else again.
Thanks for the comment. Yes, raprebrsies do have a higher content of pectin than most grapes but I feel that adding 5x or 6x the regular amount for grape wines may be a bit too much. The fruit breaks down rather well naturally if you are using frozen fruit just from the thawing action. In my opinion, twice the amount would be enough to get proper enzymatic extraction. You may also wish to use a very good enzyme I have had a lot of success with called . This works wonders on raspberry. Huge, clean extraction and great aroma enhancer.
Kyle, you are right, I listed the big names. They actually have something like 80 producers already lined up, most are pretty big, but not all. You can see the full list here: http://operawine.it/about.html. So what are you going to be doing in Verona in March if not going to Vinitaly?
Yeah, I agree. Don’t change your GBP to Euros. I mean, do so as neeedd of course when you’re in Italy, but not all at once right now. Was this answer helpful?
BION I’m impressed! Cool post!
Friends and relatives are no more used to give me any gifts for Christmas (it’s been years since I started telling them not to..), so I won’t have anything to compare on the 26th.
Nevertheless, I might be interested in trading your slippers..
😉
Cristiano,
Okay, so no comparing, but listen, you can have my slippers. I don’t want anything in return. The model is similar to this:
http://www.shoesshed.com/clothing/suits-formal-wear/suits/mens/lotus-alex-7179-mens-slippers
I saw them.
Now I understand why you talked about “abyss”.. and you feel you should worry about it.
Well, actually I recommend you to..
😉
My brother rmmdecenoed I might like this web site. He was totally right. This post actually made my day. You cann’t imagine simply how much time I had spent for this information! Thanks!
Just arrived back home tointe. Three days at Vinitaly. sorry I missed you. Kind of funny that we ran into to people that knew us bet we never met. Sicily is really making a big push. I spent three days on Etna. And it may be the most exciting thing in wine right now. Finished up with four days in Piedmont. Some of the best food I have had in a year and the wine was off the charts. Wine gods were smiling on me this trip. I ned to et some sleep but will try to post more over the weekend.
This makes everything so completely painless.
That’s way the bestest answer so far!
I appreciate the words of encouragement.