The Ultimate Guide to Italian wine 2018: Many thanks and a few corrections

We have the pleasure and we must say thank you to everyone that contributed to the success of the three presentations of The Ultimate Guide to Italian Wine 2018.  

Forgive us if we take this occasion to pat ourselves on the back but we have good reason to. And the reason is the extraordinary success of the three presentations we organized for our Ultimate Guide to Italian Wine 2018 that concluded October 15 in Rome. The first was in Milan on October 1, at the Principe di Savoia Hotel, which saw the participation of almost all those who were awarded prizes in the Guide and I thank them for coming. The afternoon tasting that followed the awards ceremony include 150 producers and saw the enthusiastic participation of over 1,000 people. The second presentation took place in London, on Tuesday October 10 at the Le Méridien Piccadilly Hotel, where our masterclass was sold out and almost 600 people attended the tasting, for the most part journalists and trade operators. The final presentation was at Rome’s Parco dei Principi Hotel, on Sunday October 15, with 93 producers offering their wines at the tasting which drew almost 700 people.

The numbers were impressive, the organization excellent and the fact that all the wines arrived everywhere they were supposed to was quite a feat considering the complications involved in moving thousands of bottles and setting them up on the tasting tables. The tastings themselves went off without a hitch and the reservation system avoided the creation of any long lines. Everything went so smoothly that it is only that we express our sincere gratitude to those who made it happen, beginning with the members of “staff”: Elisabetta Solinas, Iolanda Maggio and Stefania Serra, our graphic designer to set up the power point presentation for the press conference. And then there was my wife Maria, who coordinated everything, Stefania Vinciguerra, who plays a key role in our editorial staff and elsewhere, and all our other collaborators. I would also like to thank the producers who offered their wines and took part in the events without any reimbursements for travel, accommodation and other expenses. A special mention goes to the many producers who were included in the guide but were not awarded any prizes but took part just the same in the presentation tastings. All these people allowed us to organize these events that everyone I was able to talk with agreed were a success.

Aside from these three presentations, we may organize a fourth in the United States at the beginning of next year to present the English edition of the Guide, something which we already did in London, since the Italian and English editions were published simultaneously, something unique in the Italian “guide world”. And this because while we may be small, we are efficient. Obviously, the race against time to get the guides out meant that mistakes were made. This also in view of the fact that were hardly ever ask producers for samples to taste, preferring to review at wines at public tastings like Vinitaly, producer previews and other similar events. Since transparency is a sign intellectual honesty, as well as respect for our readers, allow me to cite some examples of the mistakes we made. I must apologize to Luca Roagna because his Barolo Pira became a Barbaresco Pira in the Guide due to a technical glitch in the system we used that confused the two names. Then it should be noted that the Centosassi from Amastuola was a 2012 and not a 2013, the latter a vintage that has yet to some out. The Es 2015 of Gianfranco Fino from this year is no longer a Primitivo di Manduria but a Salento IGT. Also, the Moscato Giallo Passito Serenade from Cantina di Caldaro has not been called this since 2014 and the name should have been Quintessenza. That’s it for now but should you find any other errors we would appreciate it if you pointed them out to us so we can correct them.

Despite these mistakes we feel we can pat ourselves on the back and do this without any pretense or illusion of being perfect.