Forty Years of Slow Food, forty years of great wines, at Terra Madre Salone del Gusto 2026

It was 1986: Italy’s wine industry was reeling from the methanol scandal, which, in its dramatic impact, gave impetus to the sector’s “renaissance” toward a standard of quality that is now recognized worldwide, while in Bra, Slow Food was founded, the movement founded by Carlo Petrini, which would gradually exert a decisive influence on how so many people, as well as a significant portion of the food industry and global politics, would approach the topics of food and wine in all their organoleptic, nutritional, environmental, cultural, social, and agricultural complexity. And now, at Terra Madre Salone del Gusto 2026, taking place from September 24 to 27 in the squares and streets of the Savoy district in downtown Turin (which, together with Slow Food and the Piedmont Region, is organizing the event under the patronage of the Ministry of Agricultural Policies and ISMEA), in the first edition without Carlin’s physical presence, and which will also symbolically mark the moment when Slow Food will embrace his great moral and cultural legacy (including the announced participation of the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, ed.), great wine will certainly not be missing
“Forty years later, Terra Madre is celebrating this anniversary with major masterclasses dedicated to the wineries that have helped shape the history of winemaking in Italy”, explains the “Chiocciola” (Snail) organization.
At the Arcadia Restaurant in the Galleria Subalpina, each event features a vertical tasting of at least five vintages of the winery’s most iconic label, sometimes complemented by a guest wine: the lineup begins with Biondi-Santi’s Brunello di Montalcino Riserva, an icon and a symbol of the Tuscan region, and Ceretto, a global benchmark for Barbaresco and Barolo; the tasting continues with Gravner’s Ribolla and Fieramonte, Allegrini’s Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Riserva, and culminates with three other iconic producers: Ca’ del Bosco, De Bartoli, and Bartolo Mascarello, taking guests on a journey through Veneto, Sicily, and Piedmont. It’s a grand, widespread, and distinctive toast celebrating the 40th anniversary of the rebirth of Italian wine and the founding of Slow Food.