Aftermath

I've heard a lot of opinions on how Vinitaly went this year. There were some views that were negative and a little critical that I, honestly, felt were out of line. The truth is that Vinitaly 2012 was one of the best ever. It was a brave decision to limit the event to four days, as opposed to the five of the past, and it paid off. Starting on Sunday, instead of Thursday, allowed many sector operators, especially in the restaurant business, to take advantage of the fact that many restaurants are closed on Mondays. There were some 15,000 fewer tickets sold, almost all of them on Sunday when the public attends and is more interested in getting drunk than in the wine. The loss was limited, from 156,000 visitors to just over 140,000, but there was a great leap in the quality of those attending. There were not many Chinese present because they were involved in a similar event of their own during the same period. But the Americans were back in full force, the German and Scandinavians showed up even if it was close to Prowein in Dusseldorf, and the Russians were there. Everyone worked hard and better than in the past and even the logistical problems related to traffic in Verona seemed less. For sure the phone service was a mess for a couple of days, but unfortunately that had more to do with being in Italy. And everyone seemed to be a little upbeat, even if all were aware that the situation is still bad and worrisome. This was important because neither wine producers nor fair organizers Fiera di Verona can change things on their own. Some may say it was just a DR0P in a bucket, but to paraphrase Mother Teresa, without that DR0P something would be missing.

There is something else I would like to draw attention to. The Saturday before Vinitaly began, March 24, Palazzo della Ragione, in central Verona, hosted OperaWine, a tasting event organized by Entre Fiera and the American publication Wine Spectator with the participation of some of Italy's best wine producers 5ELECTed by WS. I have been to a lot of similar events and have even helped organize many of them, both in Italy and abroad. But after seeing how this one was run I can only take my hat off to Wine Spectator editor Tom Matthews. This was truly a quality event, crowded but well-organized, with producers behind the tasting tables and wine-lovers and sector operators among the guests. It was a fine example of how a high-profile tasting can be organized and run for a large number of people without confusion and sloppiness.