Once a year the biggest Italian wine show is held in Verona, Italy and if you’re a lover of Italian wines,like I am, you must experience this event at least once in your lifetime. Just imagine this: 9 pavilions,6 exhibit halls, tasting rooms, restaurants, book sellers,every wine magazine you can think of, dozens upon dozens of importers, distributors, winemakers,sommeliers and top journalists from all over the world and thousands of people from at least 100 hundred countries all making their pilgrimage to this amazing wine show. Oh, and did I mention the never ending ocean of wine and olive oils? Wines from almost all of Italy's twenty regions are showcased here alongside a small representation of wines from Argentina, Canada, France, Greece, India, Spain,Romania, Croatia, U.S.A, Slovenia, Austria and Mexico. The presentations created by the wineries to showcase their products are a sight to be seen.The booths come in all sizes from small stands to two-story enclosed buildings with private meeting rooms, tasting rooms and terraces that overlook the rest of the pavilions.

This year was the 40th anniversary of this grand event and I knew there would be some special attractions tailored especially for the celebration. This is not a tasting for the weak-of-heart; it’s like running a marathon with no finish line. Walking into the event without a set plan of whom and what you wanted to see would be insane: you would, in the end, just find yourself wandering around both tired and overwhelmed.This year I had a plan (well, somewhat). The event usually runs for six days and, this year, I planned on going with my friend Douglas Giachino of Vinvino Wine Co., one of the country’s best importers and distributors of Italian wines, for three days. That is, 72 hours of non-stop wine tastings, seminars, lunches and dinners. We left Tuesday night and landed in Verona on Wednesday where we planned out our next three days, leaving ourselves some time to improvise in case we were invited last minute to dinners or tastings. I can honestly say our days were truly long. We were up every morning at 6:30 a.m. and back at the hotel every night at 3:00 a.m. Once again I have to say that this is not an event for the faint at heart but, having said that, I must admit that this might have been the best wine event I have attended in the last twenty years. I truly wish that everyone who reads this article makes the same trip we did to experience it first hand. I have to give great thanks for the incredible hospitality of the
Italian Trade Commission of New York and Rome. They are true ambassadors for their country.

This is how our three days went:

Day One: Thursday April 6th We left the hotel at 8:30 a.m. to go to Vinitaly. We picked up our passes and the event directory. The directory was the size of a small New York phone book and weighed about ten pounds. We took a quick look to make sure we had all the right booth numbers of the people we wanted to visit. Our first stop was the region of Tuscany where we stopped at a friend's booth to taste his new wine releases. We then stopped in at Rocca delle Macie winery where the owner Sergio Zingarelli was personally greeting everyone and talking about some of his great Chianti Classicos. We then headed over to the region of Le Marche (Umbria, Sicily, Sardinia and Le Marche are four regions that I am very interested in). The wine making is all cuttingedge and some of Italy's best wines are now being produced in these regions. I went to the Fazi Battaglia booth to try some new wines and Doug went over to the Umani Ronchi booth (another great producer of winesfrom this region). Even though the plan was that we were going to meet up in thirty minutes, we never crossed paths with each other for the rest of that day. I spent the next few hours meeting wine makers and tasting wines from this incredible up and coming wine region. The wines coming out of Le Marche are stellar. The whites that are made from the Verdicchio grape are crisp and delicious.The reds that are made from Rosso Conero are big, bold and have layers of great fruit and texture and the reds of Rosso Piceno had a lot of fragrant ripe fruit, spices and nice firm textures. Some of the great producers are Santa Barbara, Valentino Fiorini, Tenuta de Angelis, Oasi Degli Angeli, Fattoria Le Terrazze, Bucci and Offida. Next stop was Sicily where I tasted the wines from Cottanera, Planeta, Donna Fugata and the Morgante wineries. Sicily might be the hottest wine region in Italy today and there is a good reason for it: the wines are unique, creative and can compete with some of the best wines made in the world today. The booths were some of the most creative and colorful. At the Cottanera winery I tasted Sole di Sesta which is a 100% Syrah, L' Ardenza which is a 100% Mondeuse and Nume which is a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. I stopped in at Morgante to taste his Nero d'Avola wine. At Donna Fuguta I tasted the Contessa Entellina Milleunanotte wine and her Passito di Pantelleria wines while listening to some great jazz music. Next and last stop of the day was the Planeta winery. I tasted his award winning Syrah, Chardonnay, Merlot, Burmese and Moscato di Note. I'm glad this was the last stop because,had it been the first stop, I would have never left. Every wine that I tasted from Planeta was better than the last one. He truly is one of the top wine makers in Italy and I highly recommend all his wines. That evening we headed to Verona for dinner with no reservations. We took a taxi from our hotel and asked the driver to recommend a place for usto dine. First of all, the people of Verona are some of the most courteous and friendly people I have ever met. We ended up at a restaurant that was filled with locals – no tourists, no people from Vinitaly – and we had a great meal. We then headed to the center of Verona to the famous wine bar Bottega del Vino where we met the whole New York wine world. We drank some of the best Amarones Veneto has to offer and the next thing we realized, the sun was coming up.

Day two: Friday April 7th At 8:30 a.m. we were heading towards the wine fair in a bus filled with 45 journalists. We were all asked if we would like to attend a wine tasting that would start at 10:00 a.m. sharp and be over at 11:00 a.m.(that’s all the information they provided us with). Well, I agreed to join them and it ended up being one of the highlights of the three days. This
little one hour wine tasting lasted 3 full hours and it might have been the Italian wine tasting of the century. The wines and the wine makers/owners were from all over Italy. Each wine showcased in this tasting, called The 40th Vinitaly World Legends, had won awards. The line up of wines were: Ferrari – Giulio Ferrari Riserva del Fondatore Trento DOC 1995, Tasca D'Almerita – Nozze d'Oro Contea di Sclafani DOC 2004, Valentini – Trebbiano d' Abruzzo 1996, Braida- Bricco dell'Uccellone -
Barbera d'Asti Superiore DOC 2003, Mastroberardino – Radici, Taurasi DOCG 2000, Conterno Giacomo- Barolo Monfortino Riserva DOCG 1998, Allegrini – Amarone delle Valpolicella Classico DOC 2001, Masi- Mazzano Amarone della classico DOC 2000, Dal Forno – Vigneto di Monte Lodoletta Amarone della Valpolicella DOC 2000, Avignonesi – Vin Santo “Occhio di Pernice” 1994, Tenuta dell' Ornellaia – Masseto 1997, Antinori – Tignanello 2001, Tenuta San Guido – Sassicaia DOC 1998 and a special tribute to Angelo Gaja and his wines. When the wine tasting was over we had a chance to speak to the owners of the wineries and review the wines. After, I headed off to the regions of Piedmont and Umbria to spend the rest of the day tasting the wines of Barolo, Barbaresco, Gattinara, Dolcetto, Barbera, Gavi, Arneis, Moscato d'Asti, Orvieto, Torgiano Rosso and Sagrantino di Montefalco. Before I knew it the rest of the day flew by and I headed to meet up with the group of journalists that had invited me to a seven-course dinner at Trattoria Zanboni and a private wine tasting with local producers. When I arrived at the private bus they told me there was a change of plans – apparently we were not going to dine at the restaurant but, instead, we were going to have a special tour and dinner at Villa Cordellina, one of Italy's famous estates. As we pulled up to the front gate I was frozen in awe and couldn’t believe the size and beauty of this place. The gardens and the estate's fountains were a sight to see. We headed in for a special tour, tasting and dinner. The estate was filled with antiques and frescos on the ceilings. The dining room was the size of a small theater, also with frescos on the ceiling. Our culinary feast featured the following: Sopressa Vicentina & Tempura di verdure di stagione paired with Lessini Durello Spumante, wild asparagus flan topped with herb sauce paired with Gambellara classico doc 2005 “Prime Brume,” Fringes of egg pasta with white asparagus from Bassano paired with a Sauvignon Vicenza DOC, local kid in rosemary, garlic and anchovy crust with polenta and stewed in wild thistle paired with a Tocai Rosso Colli Berici DOC 2005, Refined and fresh Asiago cheese paired with a Rosso Arcole DOC Nero d'Arcole 2002 and, for dessert, a chestnut honey baked puff pastry filled with vanilla cream and strawberries paired with a Torcolato Breganze DOC 2002. Everything was outstanding!

Day three: Saturday April 8th I was up and ready to go by 7:30 a.m.; this was going to be the last day for me at the fair and I had a lot of ground to cover. I started to feel the wear and tear of the fast pace of the past two days so I knew today would be a shorter and slower paced day. First stop was the region of Veneto where I visited Bertani, Masi, Dal Forno, Anselmi and Allegrini, some of the top Amarone and Valpolicella producers. Next I spent a couple of hours in the Trentino Pavilion with a good friend of mine who lives and works in this region tasting wines at Cavit, Alois Lageder, Pojer e Sandri, J. Hofstatter and Zeni. I walked away with a list of great new wine finds of exciting Lagreins, Teroldegos, Cabernet Francs, Sauvignon Blancs and a dozen Muller-Thurgau wines. My next visit was to the region of Sardinia. The most popular wines shown from this region are Vermentino, Cannonau, Cabernet Sauvignon and Carignano. I tasted wines at Sella & Mosca, Argialis, Cantina Sociale di Santad,Capichera, Attilio Contini, AlbertoLoi and Santadi. It was great to see the wines of Sardinia have improved so much in the past few years and I'm looking forward to adding some of these finds to my wine cellar.

By the time I finished at Sardinia it was time to go. My trip to Vinitaly was officially over. I had dinner with some friends at a local restaurant, stopped off at two wine shops to buy a couple of great Amarones and headed back to the hotel. This was a great trip and the longest 72 hour day of my life. If you would like any info on Vinitaly, e-mail me at
info@dishdujourmagazine.com
Subject: Vinitaly