Wine Tasting - Wine Tours in Italy

The smaller Italian region, Aosta Valley (Valle d’Aosta), will host an international conference series on Mountain viticulture, on March 17 and 18.

The event, entitled “Primo Congresso Internazionale sulla Viticoltura di Montagna e in Forte Pendenza” will treat issues relating to the viticulture on mountain slopes.

Mountain viticulture as practiced today in Italy, plays a crucial role for tourism and for what concerns wildlife and environmental protection issues in mountain areas; furthermore, mountain wine makers are able to produce high quality wines.

In this 2 days conference series, many aspects of mountain viticulture will be covered, with wine makers and experts coming from all over the world who will have also a chance to know better Aosta Valley, this alpine Italian region, where vineyards can grow at altitude up to 1,200 mt.

CERVIM (Centro di Ricerche, Studi, Salvaguardia, Coordinamento e Valorizzazione per la Viticoltura Montana) is sponsoring the event.

The annual guide to the Italian wines, work by Gambero Rosso and Slow Food, will be presented on March 14th at the Puck Building, in Manhattan. The event regarded as the most important North American presentation of premium Italian wines, will showcase 138 producers in New York.

Italian Wines 2006, the guide to Italy’s finest wines, is the result of a impartial, independent and reliable evaluations, by more than 100 experts, based on blind tastings of more than 20,000 Italian wines, grading each on a scale from one to ‘Tre Bicchieri’ (‘Three Glasses’).

The 2006 editions awarded 246 wines with the prestigious Tre Bicchieri award. Regionally, Piedmont won top honors with 56 prizes, followed by Tuscany with 42, Friuli Venezia Giulia with 26 and Veneto with 21.

Chief editors Daniele Cernilli of Gambero Rosso and Gigi Piumatti of Slow Food, with a press conference scheduled at 3:00PM, which will kick-off the event, ,will present special prizes to the top winners of 2006.
-Best Bubbles: Franciacorta Grand CuvàŠe Pas OperàŠ ‘00, by Bellavista
-Best White Wine: Collio Bianco Fosarin ‘04, by Ronco dei Tassi
-Best Red Wine: Taurasi Vigna Cinque Querce ‘01, by Molettieri
-Best Sweet Wine:

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“Nebbiolo Grapes” conference series, will take place in Alba, Piedmont (Italy), from March 9, through 12.

Nebbiolo producers from all over the world, especially from US, Australia, South Africa, and of course Italy, are gathering in this Piedmontese city, the major center of the Langhe area and well known as being the Italian “capitol of the truffle”.

Friday, March 10 the series will kick off with a conference on viticultural matter; in the following days are scheduled conferences on the wine making and marketing.

The event, of course includes tastings, with two separate programs, one reserved to wine journalists and another for all with the following schedule: Saturday March 11 (3.30PM - 7.00PM) and Sunday 12 (10.00aM - 6.00PM).

Sicilia en Primeur, international event celebrating the Sicilian wines production, will kick-off on March 10.

Critics, experts, and more than 100 journalists from all over the world will gather in Palermo to taste Sicilian wines from the latest vintage through March 12.
The event, presented by Assovini Sicilia (Association of Sicilian wine makers) , is the most important in Italy concerning Sicilian wines and is a major showcase to promote on the international market the wine from this region.

From March 13, through March 15, are scheduled guided tours to the wineries presenting at Sicilia en Primeur.