The project “Wining, the journey of wine from territories to the Metaverse”, promoted and carried forward by the Wining Giovani Association of Federico Gabriele, Mattia Lucarini and Lorenzo Massari, is moving ahead quickly.
A project that won the VitaminaG call within the GenerAzioniGiovani.it program funded by the Youth Policies of the Lazio Region with the support of the Department for Youth.
The idea had been growing in my mind for some time. Trying to involve people my age by talking about wine using a different language. How can you turn the 10 euros of a gin and tonic into one or more glasses of good wine?
The first obstacle was the total absence of initiatives of this kind.
We struggled quite a bit to involve our peers. With the arrival of the first warm days, some preferred the seaside, others a summer job… others simply dropped out out of pure laziness. But it only took a first meeting and a bit of word of mouth to make people understand that these were not boring events and to ensure that every stop had a good turnout.
We did not plan the usual session of talks and tasting, which was probably the format participants expected at the beginning.
After the first few minutes, when space was given to the “hosts” who welcomed us, each stage took a different direction. However, I would like to open a parenthesis to thank the venues that hosted us: Colle di Maggio Wine Farm in Velletri, Tenimenti Leone in Lanuvio, Castello di Torre in Pietra and Tenuta Le Quinte in Montecompatri.
I sincerely thank them also for their ability — Angelo, Matteo, Filippo and Elio — to interact with us using simple and direct language, grasping the true nature of the initiative. On the other hand, I regret that some producers were not able to seize the opportunity to communicate with what, in my opinion, will soon be their next market.
We focused a lot on the concept of the “Olfactory Contest”.
How can you appreciate a wine if not by starting from smell, therefore retraining the sense of smell in our city friends? Using the aroma kits from Taster Place, a partner of our project, we organized a real competition rotating 15 different essences at each stage of the tour. From fruit to flowers, passing through wine faults and “aromas” to which “city people” are now unaccustomed. Mushroom, Sage and Chalk were the three aromas that proved to be the most tricky and capable of making the goal of the AIS first level course — offered by AIS Lazio to whoever achieved the best score across the four stages — particularly challenging.
From the contest to the wine. A few words to recall the basics of tasting and then straight to putting noses in the glass in search of the aromas previously “smelled”. And finally, a social snack — a social moment without smartphones — and further discussion about what the best pairing might be.
And then Vinòforum. 25 under 25 whom I had never seen before, without knowing whether they were experts or not. A leap into the void that instead turned out to be a great experience. Hoarse after just one hour with the microphone, but satisfied.
We are still missing one stage, the one at Orto 2.0 of the Botanical Garden of the University of Tor Vergata. It will be a different stage, scheduled for the end of summer.
Summing it all up, tiring but beautiful.
Instinctively I would say we are only at the beginning. Rationally speaking, it probably is, but to say what is cooking is still a bit too early.
I forgot to mention one more thing. We also launched (and registered, just to be clear) the brand “NoWaterToday”. A T-shirt that sold out so quickly that not even one was left for us organizers.
www.wining-giovani.it
All the videos at https://www.wining-giovani.it/giornale-di-bordo/
