Cortina d'Ampezzo: Flavor & Spumante Wines
Staff Writer - August 23, 2006
 Saturday, August 19, 2006, within the event "Cortina: Cultura e Natura", or "Cortina: Culture and Nature", at the PalaVolkswagen congressional center of Cortina d'Ampezzo, the round table "Cortina Spumanti & Sapori" (Cortina Flavor and Spumante Wines)took place.
During the event, participants spoke about "buongusto & buonsenso" (good taste and common sense), or the changes of the Italian lifestyle at the dinner table. The speakers hoped that the trend would reverse and people return to the old ways and time frames, when it comes to having meals.
The Honorable Guido Tampieri, undersecretary for the Agriculture, Food and Forest Ministry, said that Italian should return to a lifestyle which will re-establish the value of quality food and spumante wines.
"Dedication is needed in order to taste," said the undersecretary, "thus we must return to traditional methods and times, especially with regards to the younger generation." Tampieri added that information courses were needed in schools, where education in taste and flavors would be the core theme.
Thanks to its geography and varied climate conditions, Italy is able to offer great variety of of flavors, where terroir and microclimate contribute to the specific characteristics of the products. This fact is fairly evident with the spumante wines, of which Italy produces quality varieties which are not found in any other wine producing region in the world. Because of this, agreed the participants at the round table, strong and focused marketing is needed, with the emphasis on the different characteristics of the native vines, which produce wines very different from one another and unique in their varietal quality. The participants agreed that the identity of the spumanti must be highlighted and promoted as much as possible.
During the afternoon meeting with the producers, competently moderated by journalist, Egle Pagano, various other problems were discussed, such as:
- product forgery,
- imitation, identity and product quality,
- the relative ease with which Italian estates face production, as opposed to the perceived difficulty of promoting and marketing effectively the quality products obtained.
Dr. Giampietro Comolli then presented the Forum Spumanti d'Italia (Italian Spumante Wines Forum). He said that in 2005 a record production of 252 million bottles was attained, of which 115 million were exported, especially from the Prosecco DOC from Conegliano-Valdobbiadene, in Veneto, and the Asti, Piedmont wine zones.
In addition, during the first six months of 2006 sales grew 6%, which means about 12 million more bottles sold.
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