Vin Italy

John and I went to VinItaly in Verona. The most massive Italian wine show that takes place in the spring. Getting there was not easy as every intersection leading to the Verona Fair grounds had multiple arrow signs pointing in every seeming direction. Parking was hard to figure out given that all lots were full and that there were cars parked, on and off, all sidewalks, gas stations, legal or illegal spots. A random selection of cars had been ticketed, as if the parking police had just given up on the whole exercise and had decided to only ticket the closest ones to the road. We found parking in nearby unused tire store lot.
Walking over to the expo we enjoyed the smells coming from the lines of street food vendors cooking sausage, porcheta (a type of ham) and who knows what. At the entrance we met our friend Francesco who was hosting one of the booths. He works for Mazzei wines a producer that has been around since 1435 in the Chianti area of Italy (Thomas Jefferson was a big fan). We headed to the Tuscany hall walking through the avenues of the Verona convention center.
Every region had a hangar sized hall to exhibit their wines. The outsides were decorated with large theme screens that covered the totality of the outside walls. Inside there were no simple display booths but true miniature bars or trattorias with walls, windows, tables and chairs. Some were very formal with table cloths and immaculate decor, others more modern and Italian design focused, others outrageous with whole castle and tower themes and many with two stories. Lots of light, lots of display art.
The wines were so many that I felt overwhelmed. I could not make up my mind which ones to try. There were 4,300 exhibitors each with 7 or more different wine choices! We started at our friend's place where we tried their whole collection. Initially with saltine crackers and later with a nice salami. The wines tasted OK with the saltines, but amazing with the salami. Food really makes a big difference on wine taste perception. Their collection included about seven different wines, including Rose, Chianti, Sangiovese and blends with Merlot and Cabernet. All were great. Then we walked the halls in awe and drunkenness fearful to try anymore wine given the fact we had to drive back home and we had not had lunch or breakfast. Darn it we should have had some of that street food! We instead had a sandwich and kept walking the halls in astonishment at the display designs, books on wine and cooking, balsamic vinegar and grappa tastings, and the numerous drunken wine fans. The fair was expecting 150,000 visitors. The toilets were amazingly clean for an event of such magnitude but you could not avoid the ubiquitous female toilet line. There was a lady dutifully keeping the place spic and span. The floor around the toilets was a metal grid with running water that would flush away sprinkles and prevent messy wet floors. Clever!
While at the fair we could not help but hear and discuss the big wine scandals that have hit Italy in the last few weeks. Two different ones actually. In the first scandal the whole thing started, according to inside sources, because the Brunello di Montalcino commission gave the go ahead to use the DOC name to a large producer on a certain batch of wine. Another producer went to get his wine approved for DOC and the commission rejected it. The second producer was not very happy because he suspected the large producer was using grapes from outside the Brunello di Montalcino zone and complained that how could they give the yes to someone who was "obviously" cheating and not to the producers that were playing by the rules. The Commission started an investigation. Apparently the wine output from Banfi and other such producers was way above what could be reasonably expected to come out of their respective vineyards. The authorities are currently investigating. The wine is still perfectly good to drink. It just may have been made with some grapes from Tuscan vineyards outside the Brunello di Montalcino area.
The other scandal, much more serious, involved a report of tainted cheap (1.50 Euros a gallon) Italian wine. A batch was contaminated with methyl alcohol and caused several deaths and hospitalizations. Other batches had ammonia, manure, sugar, etc. The world markets reacted by halting sales, stopping imports, and pulling bottles off the shelves. Not a good time for Italian wines around the world.
At the wine fair the best wines were being displayed and consumed. It was a first class event that I would highly recommend. It takes place every year. Before you go in eat a fatty meal. Buy the multi day pass so you can try a couple of producers per day. Pick no more than two regions per day. Try to figure out which wines you want to try ahead of time so you can have clear goals. Once you start a tasting be sure to just take two sips of each sample and even if it seams like a waste dump the rest. The more you discard the more wines you can try. There are a series of scheduled events including guided tastings from wine rating groups like Gambero Roso. That may be a good place to start. They also give talks about new wines and the good old tasting techniques.