The next three sessions covered a huge range of topics. The
first, moderated by David Gleave MW covered the changes in Italy over the past
60 years. Marchese Piero Antinori started by giving us the background to the
revolution which occurred in the 1960s and ‘70s (largely due to his pioneering
spirit). Alberto Tasca d’Almerita and Maurizio Zanelli explained how changes have
occurred in Sicily and Franciacorta respectively. The latter region is only
about 50 years old, even wine has been made there for centuries (by the way,
Piero let slip the first night that his family had been living in Florence for
only 900 years so we were getting a really broad perspective). Gaia Gaja then
gave an excellent viewpoint on how to move forward, based on her father’s
determination to change the perception of Piemontese wines.
The next session was geek heaven (I was happy!) as it was
about wine research. Some of the best wine researchers in the world gave an
overview of their work – Peter Godden of the Australian Wine Research Institute
(AWRI) (and also ace nebbiolo producer); Hildegard Heymann of University of
California Davis (UCD) and a long-time friend; Hans-Reiner Schultz of Geisenheim University, who has taught a number of Irish students; and Cesare
Intrieri, Professor of Viticulture at the University of Bologna). The subjects
are too technical to cover but there is a remarkable degree of work being done
on a huge range of topics.
The final session of the day covered aspects of wine
business with an impressive panel comprised of Christian Seeley of AXA
Millesimes, Rajeev Samant of Sula Vineyards in India, Rowald Hepp from Schloss
Vollrads and Oscar Farinetti of Eataly. Again, time constraints meant we barely
got into the meat of the discussion but overall it was thought-provoking.
No comments:
Post a Comment