Above: Piedmontese grape grower and winemaker Angeleo Gaja in New York in 2012.

Biodynamic pioneer Nicolas Joly and trailblazing winemaker Angelo Gaja are to face-off in a roundtable discussion entitled “Around the table with Natural Wine… and Unnatural Wine,” to be held on July 12 at the Italy pavilion of EXPO in Milan.

The event has been organized by gastronomic entrepreneur and Eataly founder Oscar Farinetti and it will also include spirits and natural wine importer and distributor Luca Gargano, Italian Federation of Independent Grape Growers co-founder Walter Massa, Merano Wine Festival founder Helmut Koecher, and enology professor Vincenzo Gerbi from the University of Turin.

A preview of the gathering was posted yesterday on the Italian food blog Cronache del Gusto.

More than two years after the editors of Gambero Rosso published a controversial op-ed by French wine writer Michel Bettane in which he railed against “an invasion of so-called ‘natural’ wines,” the debate over the merits of natural winemaking continues to command the attention of the Italian wine world.

But many Italian wine trade observers also seem to have grown tired of the discussion.

“I’d rather attend an evening gathering devoted to household cleaners,” wrote enologist and publisher Maurizio Gily on his Facebook today.

“Not only is this an idiotic debate,” opined Montalcino winemaker Stefano Cinelli Colombini in the comment thread to Gily’s post, “it’s outdated and stale. Wouldn’t it be better if there were a discussion of the real issues instead of terms and definitions?” he asked.