My congratulations to Yang Lu Ms and Lingzi He named to future 50 list

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The Future 50 list has just been launched this year to help celebrate and mark the joint 50 anniversaries of theWine & Spirit Education Trust and IWSC. It identifies fifty individuals under 40 years of age who are thought likely to play major players in the world of international wine in the years to come.

The final 50 was selected from an initial nominations list of over 600, a number then reduced to a more manageable final shortlist of 82, that was sent to the chief judging panel for the final picks. This panel included the likes of Stephanie Macleod (master blender, Dewar’s), Richard Paterson (master blender, Whyte & MacKay), Xavier Rousset MS (restaurateur), Joe Fattorini (The Wine Show), Ian Harris (WSET) and Allen Gibbons (IWSC). Congratulations to all thsoe named to the list, a number of whom have studied Italian wine with Ian, including Lu Yang MS and Lingzi He of Shanghai, two super-nice human beings, outstanding wine professionals,  whom I have gotten to know well over the years. Congratulations!

November 2019 Ian D’Agata is named vice president of The Association International Des Terroirs (Ait)

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Ian D’Agata has been appointed to the governing board as Vice President of the newly founded Association Internationale des Terroirs (AIT) on November 23-24 at the 4th International Terroir Renaissance Symposium in Shanghai, China.

The AIT’s goals are to teach, promote, and broadcast terroir in relation to wine, tea, and all foodstuffs. The President of the AIT is Thibault Liger-Belair (of the eponymous Burgundy estate), while Aubert de Villaine, co-owner of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, is the Honorary President; Ian D’Agata, Bernard Burtschy and Jacky Rigaux are the three Vice Presidents. As explained by D’Agata in his presentation of the AIT in Shanghai “… The ultimate goal of AIT is to promote a culture of terroir, and therefore, the appreciation of wines and all foodstuffs that convey a sense of place and a tie to their land of origin. In so doing, our hope is to act on behalf’s of the planet’s biodiversity, which is put at risk by excessively industrial takes on wine and food production methods that tend to standardize colors, aromas and tastes of everything we eat and drink”.

The association will try to reach these goals through the organization of conferences, the publication of scientific papers, charity fundraisers and the granting of bursaries to young university and technical college students who devote their research projects to terroir-related aspects in wine and food. The AIT governing board will meet in Burgundy in January 2020 to begin discussions on tyhe tasks at hand; amongst the first tasks facing the AIT governing board will be the creation of a Producers Committee and an Experts Committee. The former will feature both New and Old World winemakers including the likes of Thomas Duroux (Chateau Palmer), Gregoire Gouges (Domaine Henri Gouges), Alvaro Palacios (Pingus) and Giuseppe Vajra (GD Vajra), while the latter will boast academicians and researchers such as Dominique Massenot. José Vouillamoz, and André Selosse. The AIT’s first major event, a conference devoted to an aspect of terroir currently being identified, will take place in Paris in May 2020.

The new edition of Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book is out now

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The world’s best selling wine guide, with over 12 Million copies sold worldwide, Hugh Johnson’s

Pocket Book of Wine, brilliantly managed by Margaret Rand (the General Editor) is on sale now.
The 2020 Edition contains up-to-the-minute information on more than 6000 wines and growers, quick reference vintage charts, illustrated supplements on organic, natural and biodynamic wines, the Italy section is once again co-authored by Michele Longo and Ian D’Agata. They have renewed most of the entries and inserted a number of new estates.

“Affordable, comprehensive, up-to-date and easy to take along, this small, compact reference book
is the best travel companion for all those who love wine. Working with Ian, I’ve tried hard to succeed
in expressing the essence of a grape variety, a wine, a winery or the distinctive characteristics of a denomination and its best interpreters in just a few lines. My thanks to ultra-passionate and super-competent  Margaret Rand, our General Editor, who allows us every year to renew and enrich the Italy Section so as to contribute with this guide to making our grapes, our wines and the incredible work and passion of Italian producers better known” Michele Longo states.

For more information: www.octopusbooks.co.uk

October 2019 Veronafiere and Vinitaly announce Micromegawines

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Vinitaly’s New Section  Devoted To Small-Volume, Artisanal Wines Made With Both Native And International Grapes

In Milan this past October, Veronafiere President Maurizio Danese and general director Giovanni Mantovani announced themany new aspects of the 2020 edition of Vinitaly, amongst which there is the launch of MicroMegaWines, a new section of Vinitaly that will feature 36 estates devoted to small production Italian wines from both international and native grapes. The brainchild of Gianni Bruno, Vinitaly Area Manager  now in his 37th year at the fair, and Ian D’Agata, Vinitaly Scientific Advisor, MicroMegaWines will be housed in its own space, the Organic Hall pavillon,
where the invited wineries will have their own stand and will pour their wines for the visitors at the fair;  each day, a masterclass devoted to nine wines of the featured estates will be guided by D’Agata and his international wine professional colleagues.

MicroMegaWines is a specific new section of Vinitaly devoted to small-volume production Italian wines made with NATIVE and INTERNATIONAL grapes.  “There are countless fine wines made in Italy in unlikely places and in small numbers not just from the likes of Minutolo, Glera, and Trebbiano Abruzzese, but also Riesling, Syrah and Cabernet Franc” states D’Agata. Therefore, MicroMegaWines wants to give visibility not just to wines made with native and international grapes but also to both very large and very small wineries engaged in the production of small-lot wines.

“Clearly, small family run wineries will be the main beneficiaries of MicroMegaWines, as Vinitaly would like to give those that normally cannot afford a stand at Vinitaly (or at other big world wine fairs) because of limited spending capacity and budgets, a chance to shine and reach out to a bigger public and client base. However, large volume producers who have specifically devoted energy and passion to producing a limited number of bottles from a little known, forgotten grape variety or one that was never before grown in the area are also welcome and deserve to showcase the results of their efforts. There are countless small-batch Cabernet Franc, Muller-Thurgau, Riesling, Syrah, Kerner, Tazzelenghe, Pinot Noir, Lumassina, Vernaccia di Oristano, Ortrugo, Malvasia di Lipari, Primitivo, Mammolo, Inzolia, Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc wines, and many many many more still, made all over Italy for example, and MicromegaWines is the perfect place to show everyone what these great little wines are about”. All 36 wineries will be selected by Ian D’Agata, but places at MicroMegaWines are extremely limited and estates interested in participating need to act swiftly.

Estates that are interested in being a part of MMW2020 should contact: maimeri@veronafiere.it. For more information, please go to: https://www.vinitaly.com/en/informations-for-visitors/Discover-the-Vinitalys-theme-based-areas/Micro-Mega-Wines/

Please note that MicromegaWines is organized by Vinitaly with Ian D’Agata consulting and it has absolutely nothing to do with Vinitaly International. 

 

 

September 2019 Ian D’Agata leaves vinous and moves on to new challenges and activities

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After five highly fun and enjoyable years spent working with people the wine knowledge of which he respects immensely, Ian D’Agata has decided to move on from Vinous in order to engage in a different lifestyle and to accept a diversity of new challenges, such as for example increasing his work in wine education. Asked about his decision to leave Vinous, which by his own admission was not an easy one, Ian had this to say: “I can’t say enough good things about Vinous, just as I had nothing but absolutely fantastic things to say about my time at Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar. I never stopped learning and I am undoubtedly a better wine writer today because of those associations; but most importantly, I come away with memories I will cherish all my life. The people I worked with, from Antonio to Marzia, to Steve to Josh, to David and all the others on the team will remain my friends and I will always be happy to run into them in the vineyards and cellars of the world, or go out to lunch or dinner with. And anyways, I have been asked to write guest articles for them, and depending on time commitments and other work engagements, I will always be immensely happy and honoured to write an article for Vinous”.

So what pushed him to move on?

“After twenty years of basically tasting 400-500 wines a month or so non-stop, and I do mean non-stop every month, I had frankly had enough. It’s simply something I no longer wish to do. Instead, I wish to increase my role in wine education and help form the future wine stars of tomorrow, especially as referred to Italian wine, because I believe the current level of Italian wine education is poor at best. A lot more needs to be done in this regards. With the 3iC and yet another new international teaching institution I will be launching in 2020 – check out my next newsletter out in February 2020 ad eventual press releases for all the related info- I hope to help forward and better broadcast the quality of Italy’s and the world’s wines. Last but not least, I have been asked for a number of years now if I might like to consider directing a wine magazine, but I had always refused for I greatly enjoyed the day to day tasting of wines…but now the time has come to step back and let younger people write about the 400 wines of Puglia or Alto Adige or Jura or the Baden worth telling people about, and I will be happy to sit back and oversee that the work is done correctly and accurately. In ultimate analysis, it’s just a normal step in the career path of all wine writers…we start off as junior people writing occasionally while preparing/coordinating wine tastings and events, then we become staff wine writers, then editors and ultimately, if all goes well, the chief. I have always enjoyed new challenges and when I decide to take that plunge, I will. I know that more well written and in-depth articles on wine and food may not be the equivalent of finding a cure for cancer, but I firmly believe they are a small but significant step by which we can improve the world we live in and make it a better, healthier, happier place”.

Ian’s departure from Vinous was announced in September 2019; you can check out his last articles written for Vinous from August to December 2019.

NEW RELEASES: The wines of Abruzzo and Molise; The wines of Campania; FVG revisited: the new releases; Alto Adige’s mountain magic strikes again; The wines of Southern Italy.  VERTICALS:  Accornero Grignolino Bricco del Bosco Vignevecchie, Grosjean Petite Arvine Valled’Aosta, Gulfi Nerosanlorè, Schiopetto Friulano Collio, Tiberio Pecorino Colline Pescaresi; Venica Friulano Ronco delle Cime;  Volpe Pasini  Pinot Bianco Friuli Colli Orientali.