Above: Giampiero Bea, owner of the Paolo Bea winery and one of the founders of Vini Veri. I took this picture when tasted with him last April at the Vini Veri fair.
A lot of folks have been writing me asking me what other events they should attend during the week of Vinitaly, the Italian wine industry’s annual trade fair.
Every year, one of my top destinations is the Vini Veri tasting. I finally got my hands on event details for the tasting, which will be held in Cerea (and not in Isola della Scala) this year.
My good friend (and fellow San Diegan and UCLA alumna) Marisa Huff, who’s working on event organization and media relations, told me that convention-center space at Cerea will help to accommodate the fair’s growth and that the entire tasting will take place in the same hall, making it easier to navigate and negotiate. Some of the charm of Villa Boschis (where the event was held in the past) will be lost, she said, but the new venue will make it a lot easier for attendees to make the rounds. Thanks, Marisa, for sending me the info (below)! :-)
Hope to see you there!
- Vini Veri 2010
The Dates: Thursday, April 8th to Saturday, April 10th
The Time: 10 AM to 6 PM
The Place: AreaExp Events Center, in Cerea (Province of Verona), about a half-hour drive/train ride from Vinitaly.
The Producers: over 130 natural wine producers, from Italy and beyond.
The Organizers: Vini Veri Consortium and Renaissance Des Appellations.
A complete list of the participating winemakers will soon be available on our website, www.viniveri.net.
Do Bianchi 
and of course there’s villa Favorita 11 – 12 April
info from Angiolino Maule’s site http://www.biancaravini.it
Villa Favorita – VinNatur 2010
Settima edizione della manifestazione indipendente che offre un articolato percorso di degustazione per approfondire la conoscenza dei vini naturali. Saranno presenti più di 90 produttori italiani, francesi e sloveni.
Date svolgimento: domenica 11 e lunedì 12 aprile 2010
Sede: Villa da Porto detta “La Favorita” Monticello di Fara, Sarego (VI)
Sito web: http://www.vinnatur.it
Hi Jeremy, will you come also this year? What day you’ll be there? Hope to see you.
ciao ed una abbraccio alla bellissima Signora Parzen!
@Elaine thanks for the info! I like a lot of the producers in the VinNatur group, especially the Emilia-Romagna section.
@Alessandro I’m working on getting myself to Vini Veri this year… let’s definitely taste together! I’ll give Tracie P that hug from you!
I’m going to say this here – knowing the Italians don’t give a crap about my opinion. I’d like to go to Vini Veri – but I have a lot of work to do @ Vinitaly. Why don’t they open their show a day earlier so folks who have a crammed schedule during Vinitaly could also check out VV?
@Alfonso I have no doubt (and have been told on a number of occasions by the organizers) that they schedule Vini Veri during the same period as an overt provocation… a response, as it were, to corporate winemaking in Italy…
Well, that kind of attitude is downright asinine.
Things aren’t all black or all white. If they ever hope to achieve more prominence ( and I fancy some would rather hang out on the fringes and play the martyr), they will need to find a balance, to open their wines up to those people who live in a world where there is black, white and a thousand whiter shades of pale.
Franklin D. Roosevelt said it best, “The virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are lost in the sea.”
I agree with you Alfonso. It frustrates me too. It’s so simple to just start on Wednesday! This year we actually decided to just spend two days at vinitaly – we’re packing it in! Then we’re headed to vini veri for a full day and encouraging wine buyers to do the same. It’s worth it!
I love the FDR quote!
Jeremy, have you been able to find a list of the producers at vini veri this year? The website doesnt have it. I know our group of producers that will be there (from Germany to Sicily) but not the master list.
@Jeff Marisa told me that they intend to publish the list of producers any day now on their site… thanks for stopping by! hope to see you at Vinitaly or Vini Veri this year…
Alfonso, I’m with you: we are booked 110% of the time at VinItaly and would love to go to VinoVeri if it was either just before or after VinItaly. Several of our producers who only show at VV come in for a dinner meeting with us on Sunday but that does not allow us to look for new people…
I agree with Alfonso and Roberto. As a small importer/distributor looking to expand a portfolio, it’s next to impossible to visit existing partners at Vinitaly and attend ViniVeri looking for new producers. We tried last year and it was a hot mess over there.
Jar,
I will be at VI and VVV. Hope to see you there!
The list of producers is finally online (http://www.viniveri.net/produttori.html)and the new Vini Veri website will be launched in a few days.
p.s. I will pass along the suggestions to change the timing of the event. Hopefully, we will be able to move it forward by a day or two next year. Stay tuned.
I have to agree, setting yourself up in opposition to Vinitaly is a mistake. I have only a certain amount of time, and I don’t want to spend it wandering around to various alternative fairs (couldn’t they get together and make it just one other site?).
Wish I could make it! Great list of producers!!!
Too bad it’s not in Bolzano on May 10th, or I’d be there.
Jeremy:
Just now seeing this post, as I was super busy as usual preparing for VinItaly and have spent time in the past week writing blogs and sending thank yous to many producers.(irony intended)
Alfonso and the others are correct. The other fairs should either start before or after VinItaly. I had planned to head to Vini Veri, but like Oliver, I was booked the entire time and I wonder if the organizers of other fairs realize how difficult it is to get to their fair if you’re at VinItaly during the day. To say something is 30 minutes away is one thing, but the reality is very different. Then there’s the fatigue factor. Just walking around VinItaly is exhausting!
I think Alfonso’s comment about some of the organizers and producers seeing themselves as martyrs is true. What they should think instead is the old American saying, “You can’t fight city hall.”
Please schedule Vini Veri so there’s a full day I can devote to it – after VinItaly.
Hi all—not to stir the pot so late in the game, but after meeing with Giampiero this week at a luncheon with Neal R., I would venture a guess that it could have been purposeful in aligning the dates. Producers like Bea and Cappellano WANT you to make the choice. They’re not righteous or martyrs. They’re just actually taking a stand on what it is to ‘make’ wine. Check out the Vini Veri website and you’ll see where they’re coming from and why there’s no compromising their methods or their timing.
Why conform on center stage when you’re not conforming in the cellar?
And that’s why next year avoid the cattle herding and head to VVV.