Day 4 . Vinitaly, Verona, Italy. 3/26/2012
What happens to a mid-sized Northern Italian town when all the winemakers come together from the entire country of Italy? I mean, we are talking thousands and thousands of winemakers. This is a gathering of all producers of consequence from the country which produces the second highest volume of wine in the world. Let’s just simply say, “The roads were a little full and the parking was a little scarce!”
We were actually shocked at only a fifteen minute walk to the fairgrounds after hunting for a parking spot for at least an hour. We entered the “grounds” with heavy anticipation. We had no real plan of attack and had no idea how to organize a day of tasting wine among thousands upon thousands of options. The festival was conveniently organized by “Wine Regions.” Each giant building held vendors from one to three wine regions (see map).... The first building we had to navigate, though, was a massive display of all things “wine display and presentation.” thousands of wine racks, boxes, bags and wine keys had to be window-shopped just to get to the tasting buildings. By the time we were through with all that we were already overwhelmed and decided to wander into the closest building, “Piemonte.”
Guessing we needed to jump in with both feet, we wasted no time meandering through the vast expanse of Piemonte booths. With aisles of Barolo and Barbaresco to our right, our left, our front, and our back, we figured the best place to start sipping the great wines of the Nebbiolo would be at the first booth we saw. We walked up to the booth and immediately made new friends. We met an extremely sweet and charming young couple who were making wine on their own small plot of family owned land. We tasted several of their wines and it came up in conversation that AJ and I were getting married the next week in Venice. We could not beleive it when the couple presented a bottle of wine to us as a wedding gift! How incredibly warm and generous this young couple was! We were quickly reminded that this was the giving and romantic nature of the Italian culture. We made the decision that this booth, although the very first, would also be the last booth we would mention our wedding to.... otherwise we would be lugging a whole lot more bottles of wine around that day! As tempting as it seemed, we knew we needed to be light on our feet in order to cover as much ground and get as much tasting in as possible!
It would be hard to say which was more impressive, the sheer volume and array of wine available to taste at this event, or the spectacle of the vendor booths. To call them vendor booths, by the way, would be like calling a Versailles a shanty. These tasting booths were massive structures; buildings the size of small to mid-sized homes. Many of the wineries boasted two story structures sporting beautiful woods, glass, stone and other high end materials. It was very clear that this was THE EVENT of the year, the ultimate “pissing contest” for lack of a better term, for the winemakers of Italy. This was a contest not only of who was making the best wine, but definitely of who was making the most money and who had the means to build the biggest and most elaborate “booth” All the booths, however enchanting, were just different creative ways of displaying the thing being celebrated at this festival. WINE! Of course the Italians have a way with design and display, and we loved the kaleidoscope of ways in which these wine makers were presenting their brand.
We continued to wander and taste aimlessly through a sea of Barbera, Valpolicella, Trebbiano and many many varietals we had never heard of until finally deciding to try to hunt down a few of the winemakers we were familiar with. Bisol, Villa Sandi and Banfi were all wineries we had visited the year before and we thought it would be fun to see what their booths has to offer. Mainly, after realizing that the actual wine makers and owners were at these booths, we knew we needed to shake hands with the people making the wine we were listing on our wine list at jasoh half way around the world.
First stop: Bisol. The winery that was launching the mysterious Venissa label... the golden wine of the ancient Dorona grape, grown only at the small Estate on Mazzorbo island in the Venice Lagoon. The place AJ and I were to be married in just a few days! We had been in email communication with this winery and were hoping to see again Valentino, the young man who toured us through the Bisol Prosecco winery up North in Valdobbiadene one year ago. Really, though, we were crossing our fingers to shake hands with Gianluca Bisol, the owner of the company, and one of the biggest advocates of the Prosecco industry the world. We arrived at the Bisol “booth” after a deeply dedicated hunt. There were large video cameras surrounding the booth, focusing in on none other than Gianluca Bisol himself. He was presenting a glass of sparkling Prosecco with a vibrant red hibiscus (edible flower) at the bottom. It was a beautiful presentation, and it was apparent that the media was eating it right up, which Gianluca was clearly proud of. We nosed around and spoke to some people within the booth, mentioned Valentino’s name and that we were the couple getting married in their Venissa vineyard that weekend. Soon, Gianluca came over to introduce himself and had a charming conversation in Italian with AJ. We felt honored to say the least.
Second Stop: Villa Sandi. We had also visited the Villa Sandi prosecco winery in Valdobiadenne the year before. We enjoyed their Prosecco immensely and had special ordered and added two of their labels to our wine list. They had a large booth that was roped off. It seemed, judging by all the important looking men in dark suits sitting at the bar and the tables inside the area, that they were letting in VIPs only. Somehow AJ got the gatekeeper to let us in and sit us at a table. We were promptly brought cheeses and meats. AJ had explained that we owned a restaurant in the western USA and listed some of their wines, and they immediately sent over their American representative to talk to us about their wines which are offered in the U.S. After a few minutes of attention from the American rep., the actual winemaker, Stefano, came over to sit with us and talk about the wine. Then, shortly after that, a charming young man joined us to chat about Utah and how Snowbird used to “open the mountain up early for him and his dad.” We could tell this guy was someone important in the wine world, but didn’t catch exactly HOW important until he handed Shana his card. We had just been sipping Prosecco and shooting the breeze with Robert Mondavi Jr., the son of one of the biggest wine moguls in the world. Upon leaving the booth, we remembered that Robert Mondavi had close ties with Villa Sandi and did the importing and distribution for them in the states. We also remembered seeing the helicopter pad at the Villa Sandi Winery the previous year and being told that was for “When Robert Mondavi visited the vineyard”... yeah, I guess that’s why the owner of Snowbird opened the mountain early for them. Duh!
Third Stop: Banfi. This was the Castle in Tuscany AJ and I visited last year in our Smart Car. Remember, the one where we tasted like 30 wines and had to take a nap on the grass knoll before attempting to drive home? Well, we remembered... vaguely, but nonetheless. Anyway, we couldn’t wait to take Mel and Wiley to the booth to revisit some of the beautiful Tuscan wines we tasted there a year ago. Five Banfi wines had ended up on our wine list, so we had no trouble getting the attention of the Banfi reps. inside the booth. we immediately had glasses of the amazing Poggio Ala Mura in front of us, along with three characters that were to become our new firends. Two of the guys were the American reps for Banfi. They were based in New York and had lots of “New York character” The other guy was a Northern Italian/ Southern Frenchman who knew everything there was to know about wine and nearly everything else in this world. He recommended stops for our next two days of lunches and dinners and also helped Mel and Wiley set up a tasting visit to Castello Banfi the following week when they were to drive down to Tuscany after our wedding. After time spent sipping and laughing with our new friends at Banfi, we said what we thought were “goodbyes”....
Tasting, walking, notetaking, tasting, walking, notetaking, gawking, tasting, walking.... that was our day at Vinitaly. We stayed until the place was about ready to shut down and then headed up the road to the fish restaurant our Banfi friend had recommended for dinner.
You know you have been given a good recommendation when you go there and bump into the person who sent you! The restaurant was not open until 7:00, just like any other Italian restaurant, so it’s connected bar would fill up with guests looking to get a jump start on their dinner with some local Italian beer or some Spritz as an aperitivo. Our jovial new friends, the New Yorker and the Italian began buying us drinks straight away. First a round of beers (draught Peroni), then a round of Prosecco, then a round of Underberg, a strong anise flavored digestif we quite thoroughly enjoyed.
For dinner, we thought we were starting with Osterich, which FYI means Oysters in Italian. Although a little disappointing, as we really thought it was going to be Osterich meat, It made so much more sense that it was shellfish as we were in a restaurant serving nothing but seafood. This was an embarrassing moment among the four of us that should not probably be shared on a blog on the world wide web, but I thought it might be helpful to a future Italian tourist. We had simply, but perfectly prepared sea bass, salt roasted and pulled from the bone table-side. We were also sent a nice bottle of Tuscan Chardonnay from the Banfi Chief Winemaker who was dining there. Icing on the cake!
As we struggled to keep our eyes open on the autostrata back to Vicenza for the night, we vowed to be more organized tomorrow with our tasting schedule at Vinitaly. We had visited many of the “regions” that day and certainly covered a wide smattering of tasting, but knew we would need to make a “hit” list the next day and stay focused in order to cover all the tasting and learning we came for. Tomorrow we would only have a half-day at Vinitaly to cover many more wine regions and varietals, and then we would head into Verona to see Juliet's house, famed by Shakespeare, and then of course were to attend the much anticipated Venissa emotive tasting dinner tomorrow night. But the Vinitaly planning would need to happen in the morning because at the moment, all we could think of was climbing in bed and swimming in wine in our dreams, just as we had been doing all day.
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