Wine and more at the Salone del Gusto 2008

Since 1996, the Salone del Gusto has been a key event for those seeking to discover, explore and better understand the world of food and wine. This year’s seventh edition will host a series of meetings not to be missed for wine lovers, and much more besides: rum, saké and vodka are just some of the drinks featured at the over 100 Taste Workshops in the Salone program.

A novelty in 2008 will be the Taste Workshops devised, organized and led by the very first graduates of the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo and Colorno. After the three-year graduate course, with its varied study program and Italian and international study trips, the students are fully equipped to oversee taste education sessions at the Salone.

For the first time visitor to the Salone will have a chance to delve into the heritage of Italian wine which has been fostered inside the vast nineteenth-century wine cellar at the Agenzia di Pollenzo (Cuneo), thanks to a number of Taste Workshops staged by the Banca del Vino, whose principal aim is to store great wines and sell them only when they have reached optimal aging.

In addition, the Salone del Gusto will dedicate a space in Pavilion 5 to natural wines. This, the Vignerons d’Europe room, is reserved solely for the tasting of wines made by producers who cultivate their vines respecting the natural fertility of the soil and the equilibrium of ecosystems. (The first meeting of European vignerons, organized by Slow Food with the support of the Languedoc and Roussillon Regional Authority and the Metropolitan Area of Montpellier, took place in April 2007 in Montpellier, France).