Today more than ever the wine sector has a greater duty than just to deliver great-tasting bottles. It has a responsibility to make a positive impact on agriculture in general through sustainable practices. There’s still too many chemicals being used in wine production, and not enough attention is paid to biodiversity. Must there are winemakers working with greater respect for the environment, encouraging others to reflect on benefits of a slower approach to winemaking.
The Manifesto of the Slow Wine Coalition, an international, inclusive and collaborative network, paints a roadmap for the protagonists of the wine world toward this brighter future.
The Manifesto explains the need to develop a system that transforms the wine sector into a vehicle for the cultural revival of the countryside. Winemakers who share the principles and values of the Manifesto are custodians of the lands they work, and promoters of environmental sustainability, protection of the landscape and workers’ rights.
It’s essential that we widen our perspective beyond the glass, and look what’s behind it. Starting with the grapevine, the landscape and the work of all the people involved in the process, from the vineyard to the urban wine bar. The hundreds of winemakers who’ve joined the Slow Wine Coalition are living proof of a growing desire to produce and consume good, clean and fair wine.
At Terra Madre Salone del Gusto wine is one of the protagonists, and always has been. And not just Italian wine, either! The following Taste Workshops explore wines from around the world, their agricultural techniques and rare grape varieties, with guided tasting to appreciate the complexities of their flavor and aroma.
September 23 – Georgian wine: an ancient tradition stored in amphora – PARCO DORA
Georgia’s wine history, symbolized in its great tradition of amphora, or kvevri, is one of the world’s oldest viticultural traditions. In our journey thorugh Georgia we’ll be accompanied by Mariam Iosebidze, producer of Georgian Amphora Wine (Slow Food Presidium) in the area of Kecheti. She’ll introduce us to the world of spontaneous fermentation and present high-level products made with native grape varieties in different, fascinating terroirs.
September 24 – CITY WINE – PARCO DORA
If you think of a wine-making town, you probably imagine a small of medium-sized community in some hilly area. But big cities can be wine towns too. In this Workshop we’ll explore the possibility of regenerating the urban fabric through agriculture, and the advantages that urban viticulture brings. Among the cases we’ll consider are the wines of Gemischter Satz of Vienna, a Slow Food Presidium, produced with a mix of grape varieties over 700 hectares around the Austrian capital. Beyond Vienna, we’ll taste examples from Barcelona, Naples and other European cities, to show how urban viticulture can provide good, clean and fair wines.
September 24 – THE LATIN AMERICAN WINE PANORAMA – PARCO DORA
The Slow Wine Coalition is growing in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru. There are lots of wineries in Latin America who are aligned with the philosophy of Slow Food, and who’ve signed the Manifesto for good, clean and fair wine: together they form Slow Wine Latam. In this Workshop we celebrate a fascinating approach to winemaking that produces high quality wines through sustainable, organic and biodynamic agriculture. We’ll explore different techniques and varieties and take in a wide panorama of what’s happening in the Latin American wine scene, which is still full of surprises.
September 25 – NO BORDERS WINE – PARCO DORA
Just how relevant are national borders when discussing wine? Perhaps less so than we commonly imagine. Sometimes the similarities outweigh the differences, and we may even talk about “no borders” wine.
In this Workshop we’ll taste wine wines from either side of our arbitrary political boundaries:
- Collio, from Friuli, Italy, and Brda, from Slovenia
- wines from the French Alsace and the Mosel, Germany
- wines from either side of the Pyrenees Mountains
How important is a borderline for them?
The Editors, info.eventi@slowfood.it
