The Minister Centinaio: “to establish Milan, together with Verona, as the capital of Italian wine”

“This is an important moment that marks the second step of the Milan Wine Week. Last year was the year of the launch, where Federico’s enthusiasm affected us and made Milan become, together with Verona, a capital city for Italian wine”. So the Minister of Agriculture and Tourism Gian Marco Centinaio in Düsseldorf, in the presentation of the Milan event founded and created by Federico Gordini (in the presence, among others, the President Ice Carlo Maria Ferro and the Italian Ambassador to Germany, Luigi Mattiolo), with whom he brought the Italian flag branded Mww to Italian producers at the fair in ProWein, “because you can not see anywhere that we are in Italy, unlike what other countries do,” said Centinaio. He also spoke about the promotion of Made in Italy and the many times invoked “control room”, one of the main requests of the Wine Business Forum staged in the 2018 edition of Milan Wine Week, as recalled by the coordinator Silvana Ballotta, at the helm of Business Strategies.
“We talk about it, but do nothing to improve - admitted Centinaio - and the reason is always the same, in Italy, everyone looks after his own business, and even in wine, following their own strategies, their own objectives, and no one takes a step back, which in my opinion would then allow us to achieve great results. We go around the world with many different voices, while our competitors go with one, maximum of two voices. We have Ice, Enit, Chambers of Commerce, private individuals and so on, everyone goes on their own and says different things. France, Spain and Germany, to give some examples, go with one-two interlocutors, we are a bit of an army Brancaleone. The fortune of the Italy of wine, which has a quality product thanks to which it holds, otherwise we would be swept away by the competitors of the world. For example, at ProWein, apart from the fact that in the Ice space, between the pavilions you could not understand that you were in Italy, because there was no Italian flag.
Gordini brought it.Until we demonstrate that consortia and territories are part of something called “System Italy”, we can not grow. I hope we will meet up soon, with the whole supply chain, after Vinitaly, to discuss the situation. The Minister has some ideas,” said Centinaio, “but they should not be imposed. We need a moment of confrontation on needs and urgencies, and a medium and long-term vision, which is necessary for all agriculture. We must think of the CAP. And then there is the CMO, again this year we are late, we must work better. I wanted to start the Ocm promotion in January, but our country is still, due to our bureaucracy: we can not win it, it is oppressive for companies and depressing for the Minister, we are struggling to change this”. And changing “the language with which to tell the story of wine” is, instead, one of the objectives of the Milan Wine Week, recalled Luciano Ferraro, editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper “Corriere Della Sera” and already in the Committee that organized the event in 2018, and that has a vocation “halfway between the B2b, with moments dedicated to institutional presentations and events dedicated to trade, and B2c, with many opportunities for consumers and enthusiasts, including tastings, masterclasses and more, with the wine that will invade Milan - added Gordini - in its premises, in its most beautiful and dynamic places, and in the 12 districts in which the city will be divided, each sponsored and dedicated to a different Consortium of Italian wine”.
On the other hand, added Centinaio, “Milan is a very dynamic city, it has become a reference, capable of launching fashions and messages, and can also be a driving force for wine, with events like the Milan Wine Week, less snobbish, than in the past. Wine is the driving force for our food and wine, it is the main product, the one on which we can make the storytelling, which is not possible to do with other Italian products. From a glass of wine, you can tell the story of a winery, a vineyard, a territory, and the emotion it can give together with other products.
And so the combination of wine tourism becomes natural, as is wine as a tool to tell the history of the territories. The Enotourism Decree was also made to enhance this aspect, and tour operators are enjoying it a lot,” the Minister added.
A lot of news has been announced for the Milano Wine Ween n. 2, on stage from 6 to 13 October 2019:
“Milan is the city of the “Weeks”, of fashion, design, and many other excellences that we want to link to wine - said Gordini - is a city that has characteristics suitable for widespread events, has a human dimension, transport that works, the possibility of synergy with other sectors, institutions that have a long-term vision, and is the capital of many excellences. It will also be a center for wine tourism, with the “Wine Buses” that will leave from Milan to take wine lovers to the nearby areas of Lombardy, of course, but also Piedmont and Veneto”.
As announced, the collaboration with Helmut Köcher’s Merano Wine Festival, which from Düsseldorf announced: “It is useless and harmful to compete between different events, and that’s why in Milan Wine Week there will also be a preview of the Merano Wine Festival, which is staged a month later”, will also arrive.
And so, with the institutional blessing, the path that wants to lead to the spread of the “Milanese way of wine” officially restarts, with the stated goal of making Milan one of the nerve centers of consumption, promotion, and events related to wine.