IAN D'AGATA COMES TO VINITALY INTERNATIONAL TO HEAD ITS ACADEMY, WHICH WILL DEEPEN KNOWLEDGE OF ITALIAN WINE, FROM THE U.S. TO CHINA

Following two important events in the Italian wine world like Taste Cortina and the Merano Wine Festival, wine communicator Ian D'Agata comes to Vinitaly International, which will soon launch Vinitaly International Academy, an educational initiative aimed for the industry traders abroad: the goal is to deepen the knowledge of Italian wines and help them make their way onto foreign markets. The project will be launched at Vinitaly U.S. on February 3rd, 2014 in New York and Ian D'Agata will curate it. He has been chosen for his great knowledge of Italian wine but also for his ability and experience as a communicator across the border, given his many professional experiences in Britain, Canada, USA, France, China, added to his regular collaborations with major international magazines such as "Decanter" and the international "Wine Cellar". The "lessons" will combine targeted tastings to academic lectures on Italian varieties and will be open to a limited number of participants, selected among the big names in the international wine world.

Given the wide variety of Italian grapes and terroir, the goal of the Academy is to simplify, fully explaining and transmitting the characteristics of Italian wine at all levels, from beginners to experts, with courses tailored to each international market. An introductory course will provide an initial understanding of the complexity and uniqueness of Italian wines, while the advanced levels and the focus will explore the characteristics of a single grape variety or region. The Academy will go to China, but it starts in the U.S. with three courses at the second and third levels to meet the demands of a market that is, however, already structured and very mature: “Barolo Cannubi: the oldest and most famous Grand Cru of Italy”; “The Italian answer to Champagne, Franciacorta" and "Amarone: treasures to share". Although estimates vary, Italy now has the largest number of varieties in the world, and about 378 of them (but there are probably many more) are native vines.

"This is both the strength and the weakness of Italian wine, and certainly represents its uniqueness", said Ian D'Agata, who has just finished writing "Native Vines of Italy" for the University of California Press, 650 pages dedicated entirely to Italian grape varieties: "Italian wine offers a plethora of aromas and flavors, but it is also extremely complex. We need”, concluded Ian D'Agata, “to make its complexity accessible, helping importers and distributors, as well as wine lovers to understand the characteristics of native Italian grapes, so we can all start at a higher level, both from a commercial and knowledge point of view”.
Info: www.vinitalyinternational.com