From Brunello di Montalcino to Barbaresco, Wout Van Aert’s passion for Italian wine

It may be that the fatigue of those who work in the vineyard and those who compete in cycling are often similar, intense, sometimes exhausting, linked to the whims of the time, it will be that cycling races through the most beautiful landscapes of Italy, almost always quilted vineyards, the fact is that between wine and cycling, the relationship, for years, is very intense. This is told, among other things, by the passion for Italian wines of the man of the moment, the Belgian Wout Van Aert, who, in a few days, triumphed first in the Strade Bianche, which also touched Montalcino, land of Brunello, and then in the Milano-Sanremo. “Last week we celebrated by uncorking several bottles of Brunello di Montalcino, after the Milano-Sanremo we toasted with Barbaresco”, Van Aert told Euronews. A bond, that between wine and cycling, that will be renewed even in the most famous and fascinating of the stage races, the Giro d’Italia, which, in this 2020 marked by Covid, is extraordinarily scheduled from October 3 to 25. And if there will be many wine territories touched by the caravan, especially in Sicily, which will host the first 4 stages of the tour, between Monreale and Palermo, Alcamo and Agrigento, Enna and Linguaglossa, on Mount Etna, Catania and Villafranca Tirrena, but also in the Langhe, between Alba and Asti, or in Friuli Venezia Giulia, with the arrival in San Daniele, the “Corsa Rosa” will see, as has been the case for several editions, a “Wine Stage” dedicated to one of the great wines of the Belpaese. Which will be the Prosecco Superiore di Conegliano e Valdobbiadene, between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene, the UNESCO World Heritage Hills of Prosecco, which will be the protagonists, together with the pedal champions, of the “Prosecco Superiore Wine Stage”, the n. 14, scheduled for October 17, which thus adds to those dedicated, in recent years, in order, to Chianti Classico, Sagrantino di Montefalco, Franciacorta, Sangiovese di Romagna, after the legendary and unforgettable stage in Montalcino, in the mud of the white roads, in 2010.