Italian cooking “on Maglia Rosa” and Pinot Grigio on the podium: a perfect match for “Giro d’Italia”

There are those who serve as ambassadors for Italian-made products, delighting palates in every corner of the globe and sharing culture, identity, style, culinary traditions, and values that go far beyond the simple act of eating or drinking. And then there are those who help the world discover Italy through the charm of cycling and the heroic feats of champions on an extraordinary journey through hills and mountains, plains, climbs, and descents, with Italy’s unique landscape as a backdrop. That landscape is the result of hard work, beauty, and satisfaction, aspects that unite both Italian cooking, a UNESCO World Heritage, and wine, all the way to the “Giro d’Italia”, one of the world’s most important sporting events organized by RCS, whose symbol is the Maglia Rosa, won this year by the Danish champion Jonas Vingegaard. Italian cuisine and the “Giro d’Italia” have come together in an ideal embrace, right on the Maglia Rosa (where the cuisine was featured with a logo), in a grand celebration where, from the first to the last stage, wine was the absolute star with Pinot Grigio DOC delle Venezie, the Official Wine of the “Corsa Rosa” 2026, the Giro d’Italia Women, the Giro Next Gen, and the Giro-E, and the first still white wine in history to accompany the official toast of the cycling champions. Pinot Grigio, the jewel and pride of the Consorzio DOC Delle Venezie, which, yesterday, with President Luca Rigotti, on the podium in Rome, presented the winner of the 2026 Giro, Vingegaard, with a large 65-centimeter-tall hand-blown glass goblet, crafted according to the prestigious Murano glassmaking tradition, a unique piece inspired by the Giro d’Italia’s endless Trophy, echoing its famous spiral and reinterpreting it through the pink and gold hues symbolic of the race. This was a new feature of the final awards ceremony, with wine taking center stage.
Back to the Maglia Rosa, which celebrated Italian cuisine’s designation as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida stated that “through the partnership between the “Giro d’Italia” and the Ministry of Agriculture, we are celebrating the great victory of Italian cuisine’s designation as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. Last year, the Maglia Rosa bore the symbol of Italian cuisine’s nomination; today, it bears the symbol of the great recognition our cuisine has received, the first in the world to be recognized as a heritage for all. The Maglia Rosa has brought good fortune to Italy and to our cuisine, which is made up of the region’s finest products and the many cultures that make up the mosaic of our beautiful Italy. The Giro offers the chance to showcase our country at just the right pace, sparking the world’s curiosity as it discovers it stage by stage and becoming an extraordinary vehicle for promoting the importance of good food”.
“The Giro is one of the most recognizable and widely followed sporting events in the world, and being able to play a leading role in this final moment has allowed us to give maximum visibility and value to the work of our producers and our region”, says, to WineNews, Luca Rigotti, president of the Consorzio DOC Delle Venezie. “By presenting Maglia Rosa Jonas Vingegaard with the large Murano glass goblet created for the occasion, we wanted to celebrate not only an extraordinary sporting achievement but also the excellence of Italian craftsmanship, which also distinguishes the long winemaking tradition of the Northeast: a unique work that combines art, craftsmanship, and identity, reinterpreting the symbols of the Corsa Rosa in a contemporary key and strengthening the bond between culture and excellence that our wine represents around the world”.