Gambero Rosso Top Italian Wines Roadshow is an international event that showcases some of the best Italian wineries in selected cities around the world. The 2015/2016 tour takes 65 wineries to cities like South Korea, United States, Brazil, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines. I was fortunate to catch the one-day event when it stopped over in Singapore, at Chjimes on the 16 May and discovered what I have been missing out all this while.
Italian Wine Immersion
In its ninth edition this season, the Top Italian Wines Roadshow has become a well-established platform since 2007 for reaching out to emerging markets and offering new business opportunities to the local industries. The tasting tables offered almost 300 wines and a dense programme of seminars and master-classes led by Gambero Rosso’s best experts.
Sampling top Italian wines under the Chjimes chandeliers at Gambero Rosso Top Italian Wines Roadshow 2016. Photo courtesy of Gambero Rosso.
Italian wines are often confusing for international consumers due to the diverse offerings, innumerable “indie” wineries, and also perhaps the obfuscating labels, which are almost always not translated. The Gambero Rosso roadshow promises to be an excellent avenue to educate and generate awareness for Italian wine territories and wineries.
More than 1000 guests attended the Gambero Rosso Top Italian Wines Roadshow at Chjimes Singapore.
I attended a memorable wine master-classes at the Gambero Rosso roadshow. While most master-classes I have been to offers between six to ten wines, there were twenty red and white Italian wines for my tastings that morning! Tasting such as wide spectrum of sparking, white and red wines, I could taste the gradual shifts in wine profiles and characters due to the changes in climate as we gradually moved from the cool northern regions of Veneto, Piedmont and Lombardy down to the warm sunny slopes of Puglia and Sicily. New geographical and oenological nuggets were gleamed off Mr Marco Sabellico, Gambero Rosso’s wine expert, who led the master-class.
Mr Marco Sabellico opening the Gambero Rosso Top Italian Wines Roadshow.
More than twenty top Italian wines for tasting at the master-class!
Is that the seventh wine, or the eighth? Losing track at the master-class.
I am not an oenophile by any measure, however, most of the wines I tasted were very good, and more than a few were outstanding in quality, among the best I have ever had. If most of the attendees that morning shared my sentiments, I believe that Gambero Rosso has succeeded in its mission to spread the word on Italian wines to some of the most promising cities for growth.
Photo courtesy of Gambero Rosso.
Gambero Rosso
More than a roadshow, Gambero Rosso is a major publishing house and a leader in training for wine and food in Italy. Named after a café in the seminal children literature of Pinocchio, Gambero Rosso has been publishing its iconic Vini d’Italia Wine Guide since 1987. The latest 29th edition of the guide is a treasure trove for oenophiles that offers a listing of over 2400 Italian wine producers and ratings for more than 20,000 wines in a thick red tomb.
The iconic Vini d’Italia Wine Guide from Gambero Rosso, with its trademark three wine-glass rating system for sale at the roadshow.
The trademark Gambero Rosso grading system of using one to three wine glasses to indicate good, very good and excellent wines is simple and straightforward. Additionally, a team of over 60 experts have included the price range for the rated wines, in-depth profiles of the wineries, their philosophies and history and a range of other information such as whether the vineyard is organic or biodynamic.
Chilling wines to their optimal serving temperatures, at the Gambero Rosso Top Italian Wines Roadshow.
I wish that the organizers would succeed in their plans to make the event bigger and even combine it with an Italian food roadshow to showcase the best of Italian produce for future editions.
