Vinitaly will be held in 2021, April 18 to 21. The decision of the VeronaFiere Board of Directors

In the end, the inevitable news has arrived: Vinitaly is scheduled in 2021,  April 18 to 21, (with OperaWine, the wine tasting signed by Wine Spectator, on April 17, ed), while extraordinary investments will be made on wine events abroad. This was officially announced by a note from VeronaFiere’s extraordinary board of directors, launching a sort of “new deal” to tackle the post Coronavirus.
“The persistence of the Coronavirus emergency at national level, with the succession of urgent decrees by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, and the most recent spread of the same at European and other levels, have made some decisions impossible to postpone. For these reasons, the Board of Directors, in agreement with the general management and the management, has decided today on several aspects essential for the continuation of VeronaFiere’s activities. Among these, the redefinition of objectives, strategies and investments for the safety of products, its customers and the business of related sectors”, stresses the President of VeronaFiere, Maurizio Danese.
“It must be remembered - concludes Danese - that this complex situation has also had a disruptive impact on the European exhibition industry. To date, more than 200 events have been subject to calendar revision, with an overall loss of almost 6 billion euros and 51,400 jobs at risk, without considering the related industries and the loss of 39 billion euros in exports generated by international exhibitions for European SMEs”.
For the first time in history, therefore, Vinitaly will also have to postpone its 54th edition. With it, the Sol & Agrifood and Enolitech fairs are also postponed. The new dates are therefore rescheduled to April 18-21, 2021, while VeronaFiere will concentrate, in the second half of 2020, on supporting the business of Italian companies on the markets.
For the Director General of VeronaFiere, Giovanni Mantovani, “the post-emergency for us is called rebirth, which until the last moment we continued to trust could happen in June. But the health crisis has, as everyone can see, definitely worsened and what initially seemed possible is no longer possible. In agreement with the supply chain organizations, Vinitaly, Sol & Agrifood and Enolitech are therefore moving on to 2021. For this reason, in addition to working with extraordinary investments on our international events, Vinitaly Chengdu, Vinitaly China Road Show, Wine South America ( September 23-25, 2020), Vinitaly Russia (October 26 and 28, 2020), Vinitaly Hong Kong (November 5-7, 2020), Wine To Asia (November 9-11, 2020) and the initiatives of the Vinitaly International Academy (Via), we put ourselves - concludes Mantovani - at the disposal of the sector and the promotion system to consider the creation of an innovative event next autumn at the service of companies”.
The decision of the postponement of Vinitaly to 2021 was taken in agreement with the representatives of the sector associations: Ernesto Abbona, president of Unione Italiana Vini (UIV), Riccardo Ricci Curbastro, president of Federdoc, Riccardo Cotarella, president of Assoenologi, Sandro Boscaini, president of Federvini, Luca Rigotti, coordinator of Settore Vino Alleanza Cooperative Settore, and Matilde Poggi, president of Fivi.
Changes to the calendar of events. Veronafiere, as the direct organizer of its events, due to the Coronavirus epidemic, has had to reposition within two weeks a calendar of events with 70 scheduled in the year between Italy and abroad, some of which are strongly rooted in their seasonality.