The qualitative increment actualized by our wines in the last 20 years has no equals in the history of the Italian agricultural post-war production. Over this period, almost every wine-producing area went through a radical process of restructuring and reconversion aimed at the promotion of the autochthonous grape varieties and at the rationalization and modernization of the transformation systems and engines. Nowadays, a small winery directly and economically manages step by step the entire wine production chain. The widespread availability of modern technology is the factor that enhances the essential naturalness of the product. What is enabling the country to go back to the old brightness is what is also shaping out the sector, labelling of uniqueness the Italian viticultural patrimony, an intrinsic absolute merit globally acclaimed. At the hearth of this virtuous revolution there is a miracle simple as pure: it is the abandonment of such a nefarious practice as the extensive quantitative cultivation, for the total adoption of the impactful practice of quality, with its merit being globally applauded.
Quality means beauty: places and farms where our oenological masterworks are produced, they are magnificent. Go visit them! There you will catch the extraordinary beauty of Italy’s nature, in its untainted, verdant, lush look. There you will catch the bright pureness of air, the shiny brilliance of the seasons, our warm sea, than humility and history, culture, traditions and the great love Italians feel for their own land. Vineyards, for example: green combed open-air lounges. And the men, those in charge of the Italian agricultural production: a lively and energetic conglomerate of technical knowledge and human passion.
Such a beauty, as I said, comes out of quality: in order to produce value in the agri-food sector, first of all, nature shall be qualified, the territorial structures shall be optimized where the raw material is obtained. This happens preserving the place’s environmental exclusivity, enhancing the cultivation procedures, the estate property and the technological infrastructures settled for any prospective transformation. Only a production centre equipped with perfect agronomic and technical factors, can manage the production of food or beverages whose analytical high quality will be universally perceived as pleasant.
This is the reason of the magnificence characterizing the farms where our agri-food greatest marvels are produced.
Thanks to the winemakers, for risking and daring, for their eager job, for carrying out such a deep redevelopment of the landscape and the environment. We should wonder what could have happened to those lands, without their natural and historical propensity to viticulture.
Few other activities enhance and please as the eno-gastronomic tourism does. It is gaining popularity among Italians, and it has always been practiced by travellers form abroad. To the foreigners, we must be deeply thankful: when the demand was low, when our internal sensibility for quality was poor, international tourist flaws avoided our lands’ oblivion and the qualitative drift of places and products so celebrated and accredited.
The eno-gastronomic tourism in Italy is bound to grow and spread out: no other “Made in Italy” labelled product is able to inspire, as food or wine can do, the desire to go visit the very place where it was made. Italian agri-food products, more than anything else, universally reveal qualities that come to be strong motivations for a straight knowledge of their origins.
Heritage and related enogastronomic tourism, altready are, in some of the most gifted and historically aware areas of Italy, a significant resource: cultural identification, economic and social development, environmental conservation and enhancement as effects. It is a resource whose great conversion is a deep and widespread improvement of the living standards, both for those who carry it out and for those who delight in its use. No other way exist to fathom and better enjoy a wine than visiting its places and environment, getting the chance to see its natural environment, to feel the surrounding humanity and such places’ gastronomy.
It is, indeed, to facilitate wine tourism that many accommodation structures and infrastructures have risen up in the most important wine production areas, as also several travel agencies, institutions and specialized society whose main job is to compose tours and wine-focused holiday packages. Furthermore, many wineries set up within their own estate accommodations and/or agritourism facilities meant to house and cater for their guests.
Close to all major wineries it will be easy to find several hotels, restaurants, wine-bars and gastronomic venues where to buy the wide repertoire of the best local products. Not to mention the artistic architectonic and historical heritage, the museums, the local lore that many Italian cities, in such wine places’ nearby, can offer to the visitors.
Hence, a wine that has been bought while personally wine touring, will offer an extra bonus of sensations and emotions, it will enhance your knowledge, awareness and humanity as naturally resulting with profound pleasantness from the experienced circumstance.
Experiencing wine tourism is a vocational-vacation able to raise sensibility, passion, understanding and comprehension.
Photo by the winery Vanzini
