“As you know, my family is from Asti, too. It is a beautiful land, and the wine is good!”

Wine is one of the most important symbols of Christianity, and a fundamental part of the Sacrament of Communion, as wine becomes the Blood of Christ. It is also definitely one of the metaphors of divine goodness and brotherhood that Pope Francis loves the most. “Without wine there is no celebration”, Pope Francis Bergoglio has repeated several times, and repeated it once again when he received Vinitaly and the Italian wine world at the audience in the Vatican (WineNews was also there, ed.). The Pope recalled that “wine, land, agricultural skill and entrepreneurial activity are gifts from God, but let us not forget that the Creator has entrusted them to us, to our sensitivity and our honesty, so that we can make them, as Scripture says, a true source of joy for the ‘human heart’”. Further, Pope Francis held an audience with the Congregation of the Oblates of Saint Joseph (Giuseppini di Asti di San Giuseppe Marello), who come from his family's birthplace, and once again made a reference to wine. “As you know, my family also has origins in Asti. We have common roots in that land in Piedmont, which gave birth to your founder, Saint Giuseppe Marello. It is “a beautiful land, and the wine is good!”, said Pope Francis, when he greeted the guests in the audience.