The project for the new edition
For Roero Days 2019 we have decided to take the excellence of our territory to an audience in a different geographical context, to broaden awareness of the high quality of our DOCG.
Here below you can find all the distinguishing features that mark the project of this new edition.
Premise
The communication campaigns launched on the former occasions of Roero Days have certainly had the merit, as far as national newspapers and radio are concerned, of increasing awareness of Roero and its wines among many thousands of consumers. And both the wine enthusiasts and professionals of the sector have taken up the invitation willingly, some encountering Roero’s wine production for the first time, others enhancing their knowledge.
It is certain, nevertheless, considering the remarkable productive capacity of the region and the quality achieved by its wine, that there is both room and the need to enlarge the awareness of Roero Docg on a national level. Through the experience of the last three years of Roero days in the Reggia di Venaria Reale, in the Museo dei Navigli in Milan and in the Castello di Guarene, it is clear how useful an important itinerant event can be, bringing us into direct contact with people in geographically different settings through the use of different locations each year. This also aims to establish Roero Docg wines as nationally known products, that can be consumed in diversified contexts, suitable for accompanying different kinds of food. The already positive consumption trend of Roero Docg can and must be reinforced, considering the productive potential of our area, through an approach which makes awareness easier and more immediate on the part of the those who run businesses where wine is served and of the wine enthusiasts in areas ever further afield.
Roero Days in Bologna
For the 2019 edition, the Consorzio settled on Bologna as the most suitable site.
This is partly because it is a city, known to many as the “Dotta e la Grassa” (the cultured and the fat), which has many features of undeniable interest, recognised on an international level. If we consider its relationship with Roero there are no immediately obvious elements in common, the history of the two areas being very different, yet there are general references that can draw us to notice an intrinsic basic affinity, starting with art and culture, with an interest for history, tourism and gastronomy. Lovers of artistic and historic attractions that take part in the event in Bologna will find, through numerous initiatives organised by the Consorzio, extraordinary reminders of the territory in Roero, from Castles and the wine-producing landscape, to the churches and local chapels so typically widespread in our region.
For tourists that are also interested in the gastronomic side, it can be stated that Roero Days 2019 is to be held in the capital of a very fortunate region from the point of view of food, one of the most celebrated in the world, thanks to products ranging from Parmesan cheese to Parma Ham and hand-made pasta dishes. Furthermore, Emilia-Romagna possesses a vast network of high standard restaurants in which wine plays a fundamental role. Without forgetting the great number of hotels in the Region, with its focal point on the Romagna coast.
Without attempting to invent improbable affinities, it can nevertheless be underlined for the food-loving tourist that gastronomic Roero is going through a particularly lively spell at this time, in which traditional and ever-better quality simple inns are thriving alongside numerous high quality restaurants which are receiving stars and awards from the most celebrated guidebooks.
We are pleased to point out that, for the lovers of slow and sustainable tourism, Roero is endowed with one of the most significant networks of paths in Italy (see website Ecomuseo delle Rocche).
Bologna is also easily reachable from the main cities of Northern and Central Italy, the catchment area of the 2019 edition.
The Location: Palazzo Re Enzo
The building, which dates back to the thirteenth century and has been renovated several times over the years, is sited in the centre of the city and is the venue for a multitude of artistic and cultural events and conventions. It complies fully with the style that Roero Days has always looked for, based on locations rich in history and evoking a brilliant past, so successfully provided by the Reggia di Venaria, Museo dei Navigli and Castello di Guarene.
Furthermore, this splendid structure is already well known for the high quality events linked to food and wine culture that are constantly held here.
The available spaces, about 2,400 m2 in all, provide the ideal arrangement of rooms required by Roero Days: large hall for the Producers, Conference Hall, exhibition space, hall for Tasting Laboratories, restaurant area.
The Producers of Roero Docg
The Producers as a group continue to embody the real Ambassador of Roero Docg. Indeed, the excellent response by the wineries, both at Venaria and even more so at the Museo dei Navigli, then reaching 76 present at the event in the Castello di Guarene , is truly what has brought about the success of the initiative. Their involvement has certainly been highlighted in the communication of the events and should be even more evident in future: those who pour the wine at each winery’s stall should be people who can tell the company’s story and explain how they interpret the making of wine, not simply disinterested wine-waiters.
One innovative strong point of the 2019 edition is undoubtedly the marketing of the first bottles labelled with the many different MGA, Menzioni Geografiche Aggiuntive (subzones: additional geographical mentions), which will be presented to best advantage in the tastings, as well as in the companies’ stalls.
Professionals of the sector: proprietors of restaurants, bars and wine bars, wine purveyors, wine shops
This is the group most immediately interested in the event, since these professionals are always on the lookout for valid products (in quality and price) to offer their varied clientele. To aid them in this procedure of discovery and choice, besides the individual stalls of the Producers, there will be two specific items on the agenda reserved for them on the Monday free of charge, in which they will be able to expand their knowledge of the organoleptic features and evolutionary capacity of Roero Arneis and Roero through the tasting of 8 wines, some with a vintage of 10-15 years, guided by the highest expertise in tasting.
The initiative described below has also been prepared for the Professionals.
The second edition of Roero Week
A first proposal, but more limited, was offered to Restaurant and Wine shop owners in 2018 with the name Roero Week, providing interesting innovations and asking the participants to include at least 3 Roero Arneis and 3 Roero labels on their wine lists during the week in which Roero Days was held. The proposal was only made to a few Piedmont proprietors, but in the end 58 establishments took part. This excellent response has led to the conclusion that the project can be firmed up and considerably expanded. Restaurants and Wine shops are guaranteed, in exchange, a high degree of publicity in the various forms of communication used by the Consorzio to advertise the adhesion to the initiative.
For 2019 the initiative will be more clearly structured and of greater impact, involving:
a detailed proposal offered to all restaurants and wine shops in Italy, without regional limitations, using addresses both from Roero Days’ data base and specific invitations to be distributed to the sales networks of all the businesses in Roero, as well as an adequate promotion on the Consorzio’s website and on social networks. In this way we aim to be ready, at the beginning of 2019, with a list of commercial establishments taking part in Roero Days that will make up a large nucleus of loyal businesses, where the offer of Roero Docg wines will not be limited to the week referred to as Roero Week, but will be extended for the whole year;
the Producers on their part should try to meet the requests for increased supplies of wine, committing themselves to guaranteeing free delivery for even quite small quantities of Roero Docg wines, so that the cost of transport does not deter the proprietors from ordering bottles from a variety of wineries.
For all Enthusiasts
The project has always aimed to involve consumers directly, bringing them into contact with the wine and its Producers. The average age of the visitors, between 25 and 45, suggests that the message is being positively grasped that in Roero Days one can come up close to high quality wines, uncompromised by momentary fashions, the fruit of a specific area and endowed with its own personality.
Note that during Roero Days bottles are not on sale: anyone interested in purchasing by the bottle should take advantage of the presence of the Producers and agree on conditions of price and delivery. In the 2019 edition all the producers’ stalls will follow the formula of free tasting.
The Tasting Laboratories guided by prestigious critics
Roero Days 2019 will be oriented towards a vast potential audience of enthusiasts; there will be the usual tasting activities of different years and different Producers, estimated to reach back 15 years for nebbiolo based Roero and 10 years for Roero Arneis.
The tastings (in this case blindfold so that tasters cannot see in advance the order of serving the 6 or 7 glasses at their disposal) in which two versions of Roero Docg are compared with other indigenous Italian wines, the choice of the guest products will be made so that the wines can be evaluated in comparison with the most widespread wines of Northern Italy. A survey has therefore been carried out among restaurants mainly in central Italy to identify the most popular typologies: these wines will be compared with ours, in the certainty that in these tastings, in which there is no ambition to be competitive, the quality of Roero Docg will have no difficulty in standing out even when tasted alongside the most historically well-established wines on the local market. Without going into detail, there will certainly be labels of Albana di Romagna and various types of Lambrusco, along with Romagna Sangiovese and Pignoletto Classico. Given the wide catchment area of visitors to the event, there will be no lack of wine typologies deriving from the vine-growing regions nearby, in particular Veneto, the Marches and Tuscany. It is assured that the samples chosen will be of excellent quality, based on labels that have been positively evaluated by oenologists of the highest authority.
Food matched with wine
Wines must be accompanied by suitable regional dishes. For Roero Days in Bologna there will therefore be both high quality cuisine prepared by chefs from Roero – reserved for participants of the Tasting Laboratories – and a range of more simple local products (or from nearby) selected and offered free of charge by the Consorzio di Tutela Roero thanks to the collaboration of Assopiemonte.
Cultural proposals
Photographic exhibitions and presentations of oenological and environmental issues concerning Roero will be on the agenda during both the days of Roero Days in Bologna.