The Doc Roma, linked to the Eternal City, focuses on young people to write its future

Telling Rome also means telling the story of the wine and vineyards that have been intertwined with the history of the Eternal City since its inception. For far too long, a combination of history, culture, and taste has gone unnoticed, penalizing Lazio wines and denominations with great potential such as Roma Doc. To break free from this shadow, the Roma Doc Consortium has partnered with the University of Tor Vergata to create a communication strategy for young people that begins with those who share the same point of view, the University’s young students enrolled in food sector-related courses.
The partnership between the Consortium and the University has already taken shape with the offer of internships to students in the Consortium, while the University is taking steps to contribute ideas and projects, particularly in degree theses, “to make the wine in dialogue with the world of young people", as observed by Ernesto Di Renzo, professor of the Anthropology of Taste Course, today opening the round table “From The Roma Caput Vini to Rome Doc” (hosted in the Moscati Room of the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy of the University of Rome Tor Vergata).
If young people can do a lot to improve the wines of Lazio, for example by designing new labels that are more appealing to the youth world, certainly “some more communication effort - underlined Michela Irione of the “Porchetta e Bollicine” restaurant (and coordinator of the Lazio Region in the Touring guide Vinibuoni d’Italia) - restaurateurs can do it, for example, it’s hard to find Lazio wines in restaurants in the center of Rome because it’s easier to sell a Chianti or a Brunello. It is therefore necessary to educate those restaurateurs on the importance of focusing on local wines and communicating them effectively. Prejudices have also weighed on wines from Lazio which fortunately young people do not have. We must rely on them, if customers start asking for Lazio wines on the premises, they will inevitably have to stock them!”. Professor Di Renzo believes that we need a wine that is “friendlier” to young people in terms of graphics, denomination, “and, why not, gradations”. “There are many ways to act, the professor observed - what is required is that producers and Consortiums use communicative registers that allow young people to feel close to their thinking, desiring, and speaking”. “I will involve students in degree theses addressing the hypothesis of labels and communication that can bring young people closer to the world of wine, added Di Renzo. Then one could imagine forms of collaboration with the Consortium, in this case with the Roma Doc Consortium, for a degree award that rewards the most significant theses in this regard. The lessons are not only theoretical here, it happens that we have producers and sommeliers as testimonials, and the session concludes with a tasting”. “Did you know that Villa Borghese was born as a vineyard?” asked the university students gathered in the Moscati Room by the Councilor for Agriculture and the Environment of the Municipality of Rome, Sabrina Alfonsi. “Stories like this - emphasized Alfonsi - are part of the storytelling that people who come to Rome want to hear. You who want to be tour operators must propose this story. We need to promote experiential tourism because that is what keeps tourists coming back”. Tullio Galassini, president of the Roma Doc Consortium, observed to Winenews that “there are many job opportunities within us for these students. Many professional figures are needed in terms of communication, promotion, and guidance of tourists who visit and will visit Rome. Since 2021, we have called two students to complete an internship in the Consortium in order to define an experiential tourism project to offer to tour operators: in Rome and Lazio, there are beautiful wineries to visit as well as historical sites of great interest; we must take advantage of this opportunity”. “Our collaboration - continued Galassini - with the University of Tor Vergata, which has so far taken the form of four seminars, has above all a training value for the producers of the Consortium, it enriches us from a cultural point of view in order to be able to spread the brand in the best possible way”. “The kids understood that wine is not only an interesting topic but an extraordinary professional opportunity - observed to WineNews Stefano Carboni, professor of sociology of food consumption and moderator of the round table - and in the lessons we tell the students to commit themselves to knowing well what is the national agri-food heritage and, specifically, the Lazio food and wine wealth, because certainly, job opportunities will certainly open up for them, with a good training. There is also a need to modernize the dynamics of communication and promotion in the wine industry. I believe we are in the right place at the right time!”.